“I want to design crosswords that neither a single American nor the ‘all-knowing AI’ will be able to crack,” says Mangesh Ghogre, an investment banker, who juggles numbers and reaps profit for his company by navigating financial landscapes. Gifted with a unique creative streak, this 44-year old, in his spare time, delves deep into the fascinating world of clues, crafting mini crosswords for his own website as well as for the Forbes Magazine, testing the wit of readers across the globe. It is this passion of his -- designing novel crosswords -- that brought him into the limelight, for which he was conferred with the coveted EB-1 visa, also known as the Einstein Visa, an employment-based immigrant visa given to professionals with extraordinary skills, a rare honour indeed. Mangesh finds himself listed with the likes of Monica Seles, Melania Trump - to name a few. He, who has deep roots in Nagpur, got hooked to solving the crossword on a daily basis when he was in college in Mumbai, “to improve my GMAT score,” says Mangesh, while talking exclusively to The Hitavada.

 

After years of taking the pen to the paper filling up the tiny blank squares, he one day realised that all crosswords, even on Indian soil, were syndicated from America. Being methodical in his approach, he had filled up diaries upon diary with reference clues, ‘his very own Wikipedia’ that would help him remember rivers and days and geography and political map of USA. “Barring ‘a city where Taj Mahal is located’ I never saw any Indian context in the puzzles”. And it is then that he decided that he will construct crosswords with Indian theme. “Designing a crossword for a newspaper is a very tough task. But I wasn’t fazed by the innumerable rejections from The New York Times, the LA Times and a few other international dailies. In fact, they egged me to think out-of-the-box,” states the eloquent and extremely talented Mangesh. And so he set upon designing a crossword with Mahatma Gandhi as the theme. “In 2019, we were celebrating 150 years of the Mahatma, an icon who’s left his footprint in every corner of the world. I knew there was no way that NYT could deny printing a thematic crossword of such a big icon,” he confessed. Mangesh’s confidence in his novel idea paid off.

 

He had finally stepped onto a platform, from where the path climbed only upwards. Reminiscing about the work, of which till date, only four have been published in the NYT, six in the LA Times and two in The Wall Street Journal, Mangesh feels that the best year of his life was 2023 when a crossword with Taj Mahal as the theme was published in the NYT! ‘The creation of the Taj Mahal-themed crossword is as big a feat as the Taj Mahal itself,’ described the NYT in one of its pieces, praising Mangesh’s efforts at such a novel concept, where the grid was designed as the iconic Taj Mahal. It took him over 9 months to put all this together, but the effort was worth every little challenge that he had to overcome and all the sleepless nights he must have spent, thinking up clues and answers and how he’d fit them in the mesh. However, what got him the EB-1 visa was a crossword designed for July 4, with American Independence as the theme. “When it was published, the US Consulate in Mumbai reached out to me. Amidst the felicitation ceremony that they held for an Indian, who arguably knew much more about the American Independence than the average American, to encapsulate the important events in a crossword, they told me about the EB-1 visa,” he apprises. He read it up, and applied, knowing fully well that he will not be rejected on any ground as he fulfilled all the criterion laid down for it. USA invited, he accepted.

 

“But the minute I stepped on American soil, I started thinking about designing crosswords solely with Indian context,” he laughs. And so he forayed into the world of mini crosswords. Wanting to reach out to a larger audience, he created his own website mangeshghogre.com, home to the largest Mini Crossword community. The website is free and has a dedicated subscriber base of a few thousands, who are addicted to solving the mini crosswords that he uploads daily. He is passionate about crosswords, but this is still not a full-time job for him. “New York is the Mecca of Finance, and in my active hustle mode, I want to enjoy Wall Street for the next 5 to 7 years,” says he, and confidently envisions that, “his subscriber base will grow, and then monetisation can come into play, fulfilling my dream of being a full-time crossword constructor.”

 

One of the highs of his life, besides the one when his first crossword was published in the NYT, besides the one when he was listed in the Fortune Magazine’s annual list of 40 under-40 sharpest minds in business, is when he was featured on the cover of The New Yorker Magazine, which traced his journey, praising him effusively for his ‘crossword designing and judging the puzzle contests.’ Visit his site and you will be surprised to see how interactive, vibrant and fun the whole experience is. A lot of thought process goes into creating mini crosswords that are totally Indian in context; the latest one has “A city where ‘mahoul’ describes its vibe,” - Westerners and AI will be at sea trying to decipher the clue. For those who still love the pen and paper experience, Mangesh has Mangesh Ghogre’s Indian Mini Crosswords, available online.

 

“Mangesh’s website is very novel and engaging,” says Dr Sampada Peshwe, Associate Professor and Dean Academics of SMMCA, Nagpur, who is a hard-core crossword fan and a dedicated community member of his site. Ashish Deshmukh, retired Telecom professional is very happy with the personalised approach of Mangesh. “Crossword solving is pure unadulterated fun, and it gives the audience a big high,” is Deshmukh’s opinion. “Everyday I lose, and my subscribers win,” says Mangesh. Without any shadow of a doubt, that is ultimately Mangesh Ghogre’s win - a fulfilling , intellectual pursuit that allows him to connect with a global community, who uninhibitedly celebrate everyday his ability to blend logic, language and creativity.