THE JOHANNESBURG DIARIES - FISHY TO THE CORE! #BLOGCHATTERA2Z2023

- April 06, 2023

Personally, we have, as a family, always loved playing indoor games of all kinds, be it a crossword puzzle, a word game, Scrabble, Monopoly, Rummy – you name it, we have done it. Growing up, I had a couple of crossword puzzles, two of which were intricate. One depicted a picturesque scenery with Nature adorning all those beautiful hues which turned into a nightmare when one had to look over a thousand pieces.

The other one was the face of a shaggy lion, which proved to be slightly easier as one put together the eyes, the nose and then went on to the browns and the tans that made up the entire composition. I remember my sisters and I poring over every piece, trying to solve the mystery of interlocking the pieces.

One of the birthday presents that we got for our little granddaughter, Z, was a composition of fish, which looked eye-catching enough to be picked up. It was a surface packed like sardines (pun intended!) with fish of different colours, with wide staring eyes and grumpy expressions. The only difference between one fish and the other was the colour, and as we sat to unlock the 500-piece conundrum, we realized, to our consternation, that it was a double sided puzzle. We had clearly missed the warning when we picked it up in our enthusiasm – DOUBLE TROUBLE!

So, there we were, our daughter, P, the two little ones and yours truly, trying to separate the pieces into colours, looking out for the eye of the fish, much akin to Arjuna as he wielded his bow and directed it at the eye of a revolving fish without even looking at it. Given the ingenuity of the task, he deserved to win the hand of the beautiful and forthright Draupadi.

Z Puzzling over the Fish

In our case, there were too many pairs of eyes staring back at us. The fish seemed determined to faze us and break our concentration. By the end of the day, three of us had given up. Only P sat on, concentrating fiercely at the errant pieces, and she deserved an award when she finally managed to do the corners and the sides. All we needed now was to fill in the giant gap within, easier said than done.

P's Handiwork

Day two dawned, and the dining table was covered with jigsaw pieces, more in the box than otherwise. To make matters even more difficult, P came out with a smile, holding out a brand new puzzle which she had not even opened. It consisted of only a thousand pieces (!!!) and was even more intricate than the fishy one.

This time, it was a picturesque depiction of a study room, replete with furniture, jam-packed with items enough to send Marie Kondo into a swoon. Obviously, minimalism had been given the miss here!

One must admire P for having sat down to work out a brand-new puzzle on the same dining table, which was effectively now out of use, and would remain so for the next couple of weeks, or more.

Why are we so fascinated by jigsaw puzzles? Is it the feeling of being able to put pieces together and solve mysteries, in the manner of Hercule Poirot (the ‘leetle’ grey cells) or Sherlock Holmes?

Quora

Or is it the need to build a masterpiece out of little pieces just so we can admire the final effect, much akin to Van Gogh and Raja Ravi Varma?

Life itself is like a giant jigsaw, isn’t it? We start from scratch, living through childhood, adolescence and adulthood, creating little scenes, each piece falling into place, one by one. There are times when we go wrong, placing a piece where it does not fit, and create an imbalance. The pleasure we get when things go right, and life moves on in harmony is indescribable. Isn’t that the ultimate reward, after all? Living a life that is filled with all the right colours and moods, where every piece has fallen into place, filling us with bliss and contentment?