Gifts for thought!

It's been almost a year since my last entry. But still, it seems as if it was all bound to be this way. For what I write now, seems to sprout from where I'd left it last.....

Having just passed out of college, it seems as if I wake up each day after an extended farewell! Yes, it is one of those things that happened during those last days at college that I wish to write upon.

About a month ago, as early as five in the morning, a number of my precious juniors had been to our hostels to leave us our farewell gifts (Their intention being to leave the gifts while everyone was still fast asleep. Unluckily for them, I'd not gone to bed yet!). Pitying their plight, I gave them time enough to sneak into my room and leave what they'd brought. And so they did...

And now comes the reason why I believe this to continue from where I left...

They'd gifted me a Rubik's cube! Not just another cube, but one in which six of their faces were etched as caricatures. Having identified the moment I saw it what it was that they'd intended, I quickly tried to solve it and see the finished product. Overwhelmed by emotion, it took me longer than usual, and by the time I was done with it, I myself couldn't wait any longer!

And then I had it, the completed cube. Only to find that though the cube was solved, the problem wasn't, for the six caricatures were not rightly alligned.

And then, it set in! While in a normal cube, the orientation of the centre pieces in each face is irrelevant, the cube that I'd been gifted with had an added constraint. Not only had I had to solve the cube, but I also had to keep in mind the position of the centre pieces!

Unaware of it themselves, my juniors had bumped me into a problem, the solution for which had become one in a septillion rather than one in a quintillion!

It took me a couple of days to get working on it and solve it such that I could picture the six caricatures properly. But when I did it, it did give me a sense of satisfaction, more than ever I've felt at completing a cube!

So, next time, when someone gifts you something, don't be too happy! You might after all be pushed into a chain of thought you've never had before!