Sunday, April 18, 2010

My Rubik adventures

I was hooked, obsessed by it. Possessed rather, I had to have it at any cost. It was like the people obsessing about the latest gadgets I wanted a cube badly. Not just any cube, "a Rubik cube". Why?, Because I was bored, bored of sitting in office and playing mindless games or waiting for work to be given to me, bored of twittering and facebooking. I searched high and low for it no store had it? The only toy store, Shakti toys was out of stock on it. They ordered for it but one week went by, still no news about it.


Mom thought I was mad to be obsessed with acquiring a silly toy. Maybe I was, but I had to have it at any cost.... My tweets were filled with only Rubik tweets "I want a Rubik cube". And I had replies offering me to send me a Rubik cube, asking me if I knew how to solve it, and also questions like, what would you do with it?... DUH!!!


My Foursquare , may account 3 check-ins at Shakti toys but in reality I have been there a total of 10 times. Every time I pass that place am greeted with, "I am sorry, it has not yet arrived" face. I was sure I was even nicknamed the 'Rubik Girl'.... I didn't care I wanted it.

And then one fine Saturday, I go to the store and am greeted with "it has arrived" and he opens the box and out spills a dozen Rubik cube's... My face then was worth being photographed. The Rubik Girl was smiling: p. I was smiling all the way home. Clutching my bag, as though I had a treasure in it I headed home. Reaching home I was staring at in awe. Opened it and messed the cube gave it to my bro and told him to mess it up and then got to solving it.

My entire Saturday evening and the whole Sunday was spent in figuring it out, how each layer falls into place. I tried it out without any codes. Calls were avoided, I locked myself in my room, even food was had in a hurry, can’t remember if I slept that night too. I was that hooked. Even when I closed my eyes I was figuring out how the red-blue-yellow cubie falls into the right corner.



Finally I cheated I used the code. Found a great seven step solution online. And I did it. The last level was where I always got stuck and I used the codes and I solved it. :) broke into a jig. Came running out of the room, showed it to dad and he looked at me like I was mad or something. Snatched the cube and slided the rows and columns again and handed it over to me and said, "Solve it within three minutes and if you do I’ll give you anything you want".

That was one worthy challenge. He had slided only a few rows and columns and I could easily solve it. I showed it to him and with my cute sweet face I said "Dad please can I join GS". He just smiled. A smile, that I had not seen in months. Rubik cube you really are lucky to me.


And just like how the Red row fitted and slided in with the blue on top, I had my algorithms for life figured out. In all your frustrations you tend to ignore that your life is actually coded, it has a strategy. Just like the Rubik cube you spend hours and days twisting and turning in vain, even resort to removing or running away your problems in a dastardly attempt to cheat and not understanding the logic behind it all.




Your problems have facelets like the cube, figure it out. So here are the lessons i learnt about life and its frustrations through my beloved Rubik cube.

My Rubik Lessons
1) Figure it slowly. You will get frustrated but then in the end it’s worth it.
2) Everything has its place; slide it, move it, tackle it and the colours of life will then synchronize.
3) Its sometimes okay to cheat. But cheat smart. Don't go to evict, throw, replace, run away. If you cheat, do it with cheat codes from the experienced. From their hard learnt lessons.
4) You’ll be pro eventually. No matter how much people mess up your cube you’ll be able to solve it.



Till then this Rubik girl is out to have more adventures and acquire more gyan......



P.S. am already planning on searching if i can get the Rubik Octagon. God save me :P

13 comments:

Vikram Bondal said...

It's like a lesson to follow in Life too :)

Anonymous said...

Life's a maze...a puzzle..U need to keep in mind where you wanna go...the end result everything just falls in its place. Problems don't seem unsurmountablle anymore! Very impressive the way u compared the perseverence of solving a rubik's cube and the strategy of life! Great going! I'm sure you'll go places, sooner or later! :)

Yulia D'Souza said...

ur demented..i think i'l stick to sudoku less scary.buh i wanna cube too.city centre had it for 240!!

Binny V A said...

Any plan to buy a 4×4×4 or a 5x5x5 cube?

Phantom said...

@vikram... thats what i wanted to show through this.


@ashwin thanks and like the lessons learnt the hard way sometimes even frustration can teach you loads too

@yulia tell me whats new in that.. Am a psycho so? who cares? and why did you not buy it. That shows you are demented :P

@binny yes yes yes i want to :P :P

Adi said...

The mind is like a Rubik's cube. Powerful yet distorted. Once you assimilate the powers of ideas coupled with knowledge, its a matter of organization and execution.

The Rubik's cube inadvertently brings to mind a very good movie starring Will Smith. Remember Pursuit of Happyness? As the wise will remark, Its all in the mind, when was it not? :-)

Well written post. Keep on writing :D

Phantom said...

@adi could not agree more... Of course it brings to my mind 'pursuit of happyness' absolutely delightful and the lessons learnt in the end through his struggles.

Kirti Krishna said...

Great work Nishali.. I really like how you write, its different. You have a very varied line of interest when it comes to your writing and more than often, its not an ordinary piece of work. As I told you earlier, your photo-weekly update really inspired me. :-)

The Rubik's cube is perhaps the greatest invention man has made. We ruin it and we fix it, pretty much reflects our own lives. :-)

Phantom said...

@kirti thankie :) :) m glad i inspire too :p everything in this world has some reflection to our lives. We just have to open ourselves to learning something new.

Vishesh said...

Twitter is enough for me :P

Phantom said...

@vishesh in what way enough??

Unruly Rebel said...

nice post...and i am still strugling with my rubik, m just tryin to find out a cheat code of my own... :)

Jack Sparro said...

Nice.. Recently learnt The Rubik' Cube solution. With this great solution website.