JIGSAW PUZZLE

This is about an incident that took place 15 years ago. On a visit to the home of my friends Ashwin and Nishta, the maid told me that they had gone on an evening walk. I chose to wait in the verandah reading the newspapers lying there. When they came back, Nishta went into the living room only to return with a query, “How did you solve it?” Seeing my quizzical expression, she pointed out to a jigsaw puzzle.

The jigsaw puzzle was one of pieces of different sizes which had to be joined to form a rectangle that could fit in the box that contained the puzzle. Nishta could not put it together and she thought that I was able to solve the puzzle. Realising that I had not even seen the puzzle, she called out to the maid to enquire whether somebody else had come visiting while they were away.

When the maid replied in the negative, a puzzled Nishta asked, “Then who did this?” and pointed to the box in her hand. The maid was immediately apologetic, “Didi, the pieces were lying around. I just put them in the box while cleaning up the room.” She had cracked the puzzle without even knowing it.

The lesson is simple. Jigsaw puzzles can be also solved without trying to solve them. Too often we look at life’s puzzles and are overwhelmed by their imagined magnitude. Most of the complications are just blocks in our own minds. To BE BETTER at solving life’s puzzles, we must take on challenges as normal interventions and not be overawed by them.

Surely the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle will fall in place …
To BE BETTER let’s every challenge at our own pace!

regards
Pravin-da