Jigsaw Puzzle

"Mom is already there. We should also go and breathe in the bustling air. It's not like we come here often."

"Alright. If you say so."

"Lemme grab some money. A tourist might want to shop."

The year was 2010; I and my brother left the hotel room at 10pm and decided to join our mother on the crowded Mall Road of Murree — a hill station. Dad went to bed early as the long drive exhausted him and the youngest brother wasn't interested in stepping out in the cold. The Mall Road of Murree is a famous vacation spot in Pakistan. It used to be a perfect retreat for honeymooners back in the day. It still is, but over the years, it has become overly crowded and expensive. Most importantly, it lost its charm as it lost its natural beauty—clear sky, clean air and picturesque mountains to urbanization. It was beautiful in 2000 when I first visited it, but ten years later, it was a different sight. However, I was still a kid, and the idea of exploring the place on my own seemed adventurous, even if for an hour.

I'm drowning in my childhood memories and straying away from the context, but who cares? I like telling stories. That night, our mother was busy exploring and shopping. As soon as we spotted her in a shop, I quickly asked for her permission to roam the bazaar on our own. A few ice-creams and coffees later, we found a stall where a guy was challenging the tourists to solve a puzzle and win prizes in return. We decided to try our luck. I spent a lot of money to buy more turns but the puzzle was quite tricky.

^{The T puzzle was exactly like this. source}

It looked easy; aligning 4 pieces shouldn't be a problem, but it turned out to be a huge mystery at that time. I tried countless arrangements but couldn't make a T, and eventually, the guy had to show us how to do it and sold us an extra pack of the exact puzzle. For years, we tested the analytical skills of different acquaintances, and I don't remember anyone solving it. Not even the smartest people.

I don't know if this puzzle falls into the category of Jigsaw puzzles but having a Jigsaw marathon last week reminded me of the T and I couldn't help but write about it.

Speaking of Jigsaws, I like problem-solving but never really played Jigsaw puzzles in my childhood. Or I don't have any memory of it except this T of course.

I vividly remember playing it on the computer and even developing this game in Java as part of some coding homework in my university years.

Then just recently, my mom gifted my son a Jigsaw Puzzle on his 8th birthday. It was a 1000-piece puzzle, which was quite challenging for him in terms of time and focus. So, Mom and Dad came to the rescue. We were more excited about solving it than he was. For us, the only challenge was our poor backs, but we spent a good chunk of our days over it, nevertheless.

I will count it as my first Jigsaw Puzzle and that too with 1000 pieces. An hour into solving it, I started developing strategies because it was obvious that it was going to take a lot of time and it wasn't going to piece together with causal mind work. It needed smart work. Since the tiles were small and needed a lot of scrutinizing, I grouped the tiles colour-wise. Looking at the picture, the light blue tiles were sky, green were mostly grass and tractors. Yellows were wheels. Different shades of red were on different rooftops. Once organized into colourwise groups, it was easier to piece them together by looking at the picture.

Smaller objects were easier, but indefinite, and shapeless elements like the sky, the grass and even the branches of the tree were daunting. I had to look closely to determine the different shades of the sky—smokey above what looked like industrial towers and bright blue above the countryside. Clouds were helpful too.

I think grass took the most time and it was my least favourite element. I was tired by that time and wanted to just get done with it.

The final look was extremely satisfying. I must say every time a tile interlocked correctly, I had a rush of dopamine.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to make a T puzzle for my kids. I don't have a jigsaw, let's call it a Scissors Puzzle...?