A Venture. . .

One summer when I was thinking of ways of keeping myself busy and was bored ( as I had ran out of ideas ) , something caught my attention . It was my brother who was chattering excitedly ( as always ! ) about how one of his friends could solve a rubik's cube.

I had always seen the three by three cube with coloured faces on shelves of stores and I would always think that to solve it was next to impossible. Something stirred in my mind ; as a small kid I too had owned a rubik's cube as a part of my toy collection. So I searched for it and found it in a dusty corner of my closet where it lay forgotten and waiting to be retrieved . . . . . . . .

Now that I had the cube I started moving the faces at random , but it was in vain . I couldn't make out head or tail of what I was doing myself. After a while I got a hang of it and could atleast understand where each piece needed to be , though I was far from getting them into their right places. A few hours later , I had made little progress and gave up for the day.

The next day after having slept over the thought of solving the cube , I thought of getting some help. Nowadays information is just a click away from us and so it was very easy to get the steps of solving the cube . A simple search on google did the job . I found a video which was very enlightening ( got to know that there is a lot more to it than I had thought !! ) . The video enlisted a number of algorithms that had to be used , so I noted them down and sat down to solve my very first rubik's cube. It took me some time , but I did it !! At first I needed to refer to the algorithms quite frequently to solve it but as time passed by I got better at it and knew the steps very well.
I knew them so well that subconsciously I had devised my own ways of doing certain steps . It was a really amazing feeling when I could solve the cube ( something that I had thought was impossible could now be achieved in less than five minutes !! ) . Now it so happens that I can't even stand seeing an unsolved rubik's cube anywhere , be it in my own house or even at a friend's place , I end up solving it (my hands just can't resist it !)

When my brother saw that I could solve the cube , he got excited and wanted to do it himself. Soon enough he too could solve the cube .We both were so enthusiastic that later on we raced each other with timer on .It was fun!! At first showing off that we could do it and then gaining students who wanted to learn it from us ! The list of people who learnt to solve the cube from us was vast, right from my father to my cousins and many of my friends got entangled into solving the cube .

I learnt a lot from this experience. It was evident that human mind is always fascinated by and ready to take up challenges. However it takes some initiation; it was only when I actually solved a cube in front of people that they got interested in it . But once I had showed them how to solve it , the fire was lit and it spread rapidly .The process didn't just stop at solving the cube but extended to solving it faster and making different patterns on the cube and then solving it back .

I never expected that something that started as a mere venture to pass time during my summer vacations could entangle so many minds and I am saying entangled because such mind games are addictive. At times it becomes difficult to concentrate on other things (especially when you are in the process of learning it and haven't yet solved it completely) . Hours pass by and you are unaware of it , stuck to the cube .
So the next time a mind game catches your interest make sure you have time for it before venturing into solving it. Don't forget that I got into solving this cube during my summer vacations and I had plenty of time at hand !!