Jumble Word, Crossword and Much More

This is a long standing tradition at home, to start the day with a cup of coffee, a cup of tea, a mug of Bournvita and perhaps another mug of Complan, coupled with solving puzzles that spread across the everyday newspaper. You must be wondering why all the four together! Well, that’s in order of the beverages each one of us has in the morning as we say, ‘Suprabhatamu’ at home. Pa, Ma, Bro, and Me.

To describe it from the mind of a management student, here’s a brief:

Venue:- the Dining Table
Time:- around 7am. Of course, my timings are a bit more flexible.
Inventory:- Pens and pencils, Newspaper. Preferrably Telegraph.
Activity:- Solve Jumble Words, Crossword next; and not get up from the table till you think you have exhausted all the resources that you can lay your hands on to help you solve that entire crossword.
Resources include:- Oxford Dictionary, Thesaurus, the Encyclopedia, Manorama. And of course, the four bright brains!

We are like four arrows pointing at the four different, mostly opposite directions, thereby having contradictory but mostly complementary viewpoints in Life. If one points due North, there will definitely be someone pointing due South. With the rest two of us, pointing at East and West – sometimes apprehensive of taking either of the two others, or sometimes because of plain boredom! So, we do not spare even the beverages.

But this is what adds spice to our lives. And no wonder, we have had such wonderful conversations on the dining table during our meals. Be it about Indian Politics, about Cars’ engines, about exams and entrances, about Philosophy or simply about the routines of the day. The discussions are innumerable; and inevitable! And yes, like all Roads lead to Rome; all Conversations finally lead to Cinema. That is a characteristic feature of our talks over the table.

But the morning-gathering is definitely a tad different. It begins and ends with a play of words, and only words! The Telegraph was our favorite for a really long time. As my father’s visits to the capital city increased, we began to have a new addition to our game of words. The Daily in Delhi called Mail Today carries a supplement, Coffee Break, which includes countless puzzles – Sudoku of varied types and difficulty levels, Kakuro, Codeword, Cryptic Crossword, Daily Jumble, Word Wheel, Navigati, Minute Maze – with Cryptic Crossword having picked up maximum popularity at our table. The time spent over this is a mixture of emotions – with Pa feeling proud at every word correctly solved by kids Bro and Me, or Pa trying to (still) woo Ma with his wits! In one word – it is an absolute delight. To watch, to solve, to share, and to learn! And am grateful to my Pa for stimulating our minds from such a young age to spend time over Page 8 than o’er Page 3!

 

P.S. Yes, I am still a Complan Girl! :) 

P.P.S Do get your online copy of Coffee Break if you are into Puzzles.