Remember the scene in ‘The Pursuit of Happyness' in which Will Smith astonishes Brian Howe by solving the Rubik's cube in a cab? (The cabbie has a cube in his hand too.) Will Smith has speed cubers Tyson Mao, Toby Mao and Lars Petrus to thank for that.
Tyson Mao is the co-founder of the World Cube Association (WCA), an organization that is actively involved in conducting cubing competitions across the world. Since 2004, this organization, spearheaded by Mao, Ron van Bruchem and Masayuki Akimoto, has been encouraging people all over the world to twist, turn and flip Erno Rubik's invention. The Hungarian Rubik would have never imagined that a working model designed to explain three-dimensional geometry (in 1974), would become such a rage. In India the cube-fever is spreading thanks to people like John Louis and his 14 year-old son, Bernett Orlando. John Louis was one of the first people, who solved the Rubik's cube in the world, in the 80s. Twenty years later, he went back to cubing, found some like-minded people on the internet, and resurrected his passion. John is now the Indian delegate of WCA. "WCA is an amateur body that is responsible for framing rules and conducting cubing championships across the world. In India, IIT-Kanpur was the first to organize a cubing championship in 2008. Subsequently, institutions like IIT-M, IIT-D, VNIT and VJTI began ‘Cube Opens'. As the Indian delegate of WCA, I scrutinize these championships," says John.
In cubing championships, participants are required to solve the cube five times and the time taken for each attempt is noted. The best and the worst readings are neglected and the remaining three are averaged to determine a participant's official score. Based on the scores in these cube opens, WCA draws up a list of the top 100 speed cubers (both worldwide and country-wise). It is no surprise that John's son Bernett Orlando, who can solve the cube in 13.72 seconds (average), tops WCA's list of Indian speed-cubers.
Cube Campaign
The Gtalk status of Girish Ganesan, 17th in this list, reads "If Speedcubing Is My Religion then Jessica Fridrich Is My Goddess". Who is Fridrich? Ganesan explains that she is one of the professors, who devised a method of deconstructing a cube (the others are Petrus and Rous). He says there are 4.32x10{+1}{+9} ways of arranging the simple 3x3x3 cube. Girish, who has been speed cubing for the past two years, can solve the cube in 24.21 seconds (average). "It has always been my campaign to recruit more people into cubing. All a person needs to do is go to a WCA-recognised tournament, register his name, grab a cube from someone nearby and get cracking". This Electrical Engineering student also teaches speedcubing to some of his friends. One of his students, Inthumathi Chandrasekaran, remarks, "Firstly cubing is outright nerdy. It is fascinating to watch a speed cuber cubing, and for somebody like me who enjoys solving riddles and puzzles, it is the most beautiful of all puzzles." Girish works so obsessively with his cubes that he has now been diagnosed with Rubik's wrist and a Cubist's thumb! He says his thumb joints and wrists begin to hurt after a long session of cubing and that his joints are as old as his mother's.
Cubaholic
Solving a 3x3 cube is no longer a big deal for these speed cubers. They work on solving 4x4 and 5x5 cubes and pyraminxes (a tetrahedral puzzle). Why, they can even solve these cubes with a single hand or even blind folded! Aravind Ramachandran, a Mechanical Engineering student practises single-handed cubing, while taking notes in class!
John Louis, who is eagerly waiting for Pragyan Open, in his hometown Trichy, in February, feels that championships being conducted in techno-management fests in colleges ensure that cubing flourishes in the country. "Cubing is coming up well, in India. However, since cubing is not a professional sport, more awareness has to be created. The problem in our country is that parents force their children into cubing, because this activity enhances analytical skills. Some of these children quit midway. Some others take part in contests and when they realise they are slow in solving the cube, they give up," he says. John emphasises on the need for corporate sponsorships too. "In cubing championships, not much of money is doled out. Corporates can fund such events and improve the cubing scene in our country."
The cube has been a source of inspiration for art too! There is an art movement known as ‘Rubikubism'. Bernett Orlando practises this art. He can scramble the cube and rearrange it to make Marilyn Monroe (1521 cubes) and create a Christmas scene with 2025 cubes in less than 10 hours.
