Rubik's Cube

Part1: I Sent a Letter

What are stamps for? Stamps are misleading; under the guise of a pretty picture, they represent a long waiting period. A wait was killed by the internet on 15th August 1995 when it reached us through modems that would fire up with a strange, extraterrestrial sound. Srishti, who lived in a small room on the 5th floor of a building in Bangalore, knew how to wait. Every morning she would wake up and watch the city from a height that made her believe that Bangalore was waiting for her too. She relished waiting for things; the anticipation of something was more precious to her than the actual occurrence. For a person like Srishti, the Indian Postal Service was a blessing. Her only vice is that she wanted to slow down not just her time but everyone else’s time too. She was spreading this slowness to as many people she could, one letter at a time. Her letters were so charmingly bewitching that anyone who received them would wind back their clocks by 6 minutes. With time, which was slowing down by 6 minutes, everyone who joined her slow brigade would lovingly call her a cow.

Part2: Time

Part 3 : The Toy Shop

All letters posted by Srishti would first reach a Toy Shop for screening before they were dispatched to the intended receiver. Each letter was read by Melanie, the toy shop owner, who took over the responsibility of running it from her parents. She loved her work and would wait for the letters to arrive. While there were many people sending letters across the world, Srishti’s letters stood out and her stack of letters had a special place in Melanie’s Toy Shop. Srishti’s letters always arrived in packs of 6 and were placed next to the Rubik's Cube section in the shop. Melanie would pause everything to pour through Srishti’s letters because they were a puzzle to her. This morning Srishti had 6 letters to a woman named Sangeetha who had six dogs. Sometimes the letters would take months to reach the final receiver because, like Srishti, Melanie also prescribed to a ‘Why hurry?’ way of life.

Part 4: Color

By the time Melanie got done with Srishti’s letters this time, color had started to fill her shop for the first time. She saw color envelop the letters and the toys around her. The stack of Rubik’s Cube next to her light up with bright shades of white, red, blue, orange, green, and yellow. Melanie wondered if the color had anything to do with Sangeetha’s six dogs Pratiksha, Pehechaan, Chandramukhi, Bajrangbali, Sumueru, and Suryavanshi..

Part 5: Meaning

It had been six months since Sangeetha started receiving letters from Srishti. She had a small diary in which she would note done words that she found interesting. These words were collected from hoardings, newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, and now Srishti’s letters. From Srishti’s letters, she noted down many words, and six of them were used to name her dogs.

Pratiksha: To wait

Pehechaan : To identify

Chandramukhi: Moon and the lucky number associated with is 3

Bajrangbali: Diamond

Sumueru: Mount Meru, the golden mountain on which the Ganges waters fall

Suryavanshi: Lineage of the Sun god

Color flooded Melanie’s shop the day Sangeetha called her dogs out by their names.

Part 6: A Mountain Climb

Part 7: A Sequence of Events

By the time Sangeetha’s dog grew up, the internet had arrived, and there was now a cheat code for everything on it. Here is one on solving Rubik’s Cube in under three minutes:

Solving the Rubik’s Cube will require you to turn its faces. Each face is represented by a letter. The direction of a given rotation is denoted by the presence or absence of a prime (’) symbol.

Right face: R
Left face: L
Upward-pointing face: U
Downward-pointing face: D
Front face: F
Back face: B

R, L, U, D, F, or B means to turn the corresponding face 90 degrees clockwise

R’, L,’ U,’ D,’ F,’ or B’ means to turn the corresponding face 90 degrees counterclockwise

R2, L2, U2, D2, F2, or B2 means to turn the corresponding face 180 degrees.

Part 8: Ups-a-daisy

Sangeetha and her six dogs, Pratiksha, Pehechaan, Chandramukhi, Bajrangbali, Sumueru, Suryavanshi, were in sync. A rhythm that made them move and flow from day to day effortlessly. A sound reverberated from the six dogs and silence to break the sound at a steady beat.

Part 9: Writing on The Wall.                                                                                                                                                                 The letters were never on time. Sangeetha never replied to them but the letters never stopped. Srishti thinks that her letters are the reason that every Saturday, the sixth day of the week, a dog appears at her door. Melanie’s toy shop now sells toys for dogs too.