Nikau's Gift

Rowan Burns

My Rubik's Cube has 6 faces, 6 colours, and is complex as heck.

I have recently had the lovely opportunity of learning how to solve a Rubik's Cube under the tutelage of our very own Nikau Reti-Beazley. It has become contagious really. First Ollie and I got taken down, consumed by the overwhelming nature of the disease. And now others are showing symptoms: Matt, Miller, and most recently George. May our fellow brethren have a speedy recovery like I did.

It all started with making a daffodil; a yellow centre with four white orthogonally adjacent squares. A false friend planted to entice and to ease you into the journey. It is also Singapore and the beginning of our journey.

After you've mastered this basic step, lulled into a false sense of security, everything is reversed. Your white picket fence squares are turned on their head, and flipped to the bottom of the cube. Kolkata could not be more opposite to Singapore. In Singapore, they threaten to punish you with fines for littering, while in Kolkata the litter serves as its own form of punishment.

Next, the white corners of the cube are added, and everyone gets to see on the surface what the cube is going to become. Together we have completed the first layer of the puzzle, but start to realize how much more complicated the cube is that we originally thought. Some might start to regret undertaking this challenge, some have already given up.

The second stage acts as a brief respite. Arguably my favourite part so far. You fit the middle layer with a repetitive but satisfying series of actions. Nothing extraordinary happened in Darjeeling to all of us collectively, but I think everyone has their own unique memory in the village among the clouds.

By far the hardest part of the cube is the final stage, steps merge together and it becomes harder and harder to remember what you have learnt. One might even need to write instructions on their arm to help them.  However, it can also be the most satisfying and rewarding part of the journey for those of us who persevere through and complete it.

I may have solved the enigma of the Rubik's Cube, yet I am further away from understanding it than when I started. So many questions. Why do we sometimes skip step 6? How can people solve this in 5 seconds? How much is this community fed? Are things getting better or?

Embarking to India has not brought me closer to understanding this place. The elephants in the room are not the ones that tried to attack our village last night, but are the questions we still don't know the answers to and I think it is best left that way. Maybe I already know the answers but choose not to believe them.
 
India has 1 billion faces, a world of colours, and is a lot more complicated than my Rubik's cube.