And now its an obsession!

It was the last day of our sixth semester. With the exams already out of the way, the only real work that we had to do was to get packing to our homes. Amidst all this confusion, there was one of our seniors who had come to our hostel, Pearl, to see us off. And it was then that it all started...

There he was, sitting and talking to us while we were rummaging everything and stuffing them into our bags. It was now that he spotted a Rubik's cube, lying alone in the corner of one of our rooms, in memory of the Nittfest(our intra-collegiate cultural festival) that had gone by.

At first, no one took notice. But as he started solving the cube with ease, soon a group started forming around him! Believe me, almost every single person were in awe, and every one wanted to know the 'trick' immediately. It ain't that easy though...

I had made a mental note that when I return to college for the seventh semester, I should be able to solve the cube with ease.

It was as I guessed, difficult. Time passed before I actually got my hands on a Rubik's cube. And once this was done, I searched the net(the faithful servant who promises to be of help whenever needed) and after some work ended up with the right site for me, a beginner's guide!

Still, I was not through. The first time I did solve, with the algorithm in front of me in the computer screen, it took me almost four hours! Worth it, for I just didn't solve, but tried and understood the intricacies of the cube.

What started as a mere whim, was slowing becoming an obsession!

I was spending a lot of hours everyday on the cube, and slowly but steadily brought down the time that I needed to solve it. I was able to better the algorithms that I knew, to suit to my methods of solving. And with this done, next in line is speed solving, and solving it blindfolded!

What more, it gives you a satisfaction when you think of it in the following manner :
The solved Rubik's cube is one out of 43 quintillion (43,252,003,274,489,856,000) permutations that are possible on the cube!
Well, its not just another toy any more!