Su Su Sudoku

I think it's inherited.

If I were to turn back the clock about 25 years ago - i recall summer vacations in my grandmother's house in Calcutta. Idyllic afternoons, naps that the kids were supposed to take, gentle and furtive whispers filled the air while some of the elders snored, and others lazed, and a few exceptions to the norm. One was me - i couldn't bear to sleep in the afternoon (probably had something to do with my need to wake up later than everyone in the household in the morning, hence the inability to cozy up with Kumbhakarna a few hours later.) The other was my grandmother, universally known as Meme - who spent the greater part of her afternoon engrossed in the Bartaman crossword. Her otherwise serene aspect would be contorted with strange expressions as she racked her vocabulary for the right word.

Years later - i see the similarity in my mother , who spends her afternoon in a similar quotidian fashion - just like meme. Once she is back from school (yes, she is grown up, she is a teacher) with the dogs (now dog) at her feet, completing the Telegraph and TOI cross word. She is rather annoyed when i am around and get to some parts of her afternoon delight before she can get back from school, and even more annoyed if i don't get to it!

This child of the chatterji clan loved getting to the crossword as well - typically by afternoon since mornings were better spent sleeping or getting to school or college or work. The habit broke soon after once the workplace didn't allow me to even realise the day was over, let alone give me time to take an afternoon break! An occasional afternoon flight or train ride sometimes helped me find the crossword, which i put down soon after, feeling like a blunt knife.

But here I am - having converted to a house elf in recent times as my husband christened me today - and discovered the joys of a new kind of crossword ( I guess you can call it that ) - the Sudoku. Similar to a magic square, latin square, and a crossword -the Sudoku is a number puzzle of a different kind! Full of possibilities, a few keys that can unravel the grid, and bring you complete joy or frustration!

There's a link in my blog to a cool sudoku site that sends me puzzles every day! It really is fun - try it!

To borrow from Amitav Ghosh (Hungry Tide)
"She recalled the mythologies of discovery that attracted her to the sciences as a child, and how the most miraculous seemed always to be the ones that had the most quotidian origins - Archimedes and his bathtub, Newton and his apple."