JOIN US Not the traditional paperboard or wooden tile puzzles one played with as a child, mind you, but an electronic version.
Now, Bernett just happens to be a child prodigy and world champion many times over in cubing. That entails solving 555 professor cubes blindfolded! (Professor cubes are a bigger version of the Rubik’s Cube). Bernett holds 23 national and six Asian records and is the youngest in the world to have solved a 333 multiple Rubik’s cube, 444 cube and 555 cube blindfolded in various parts of the world.
That’s not all. He can solve the cube with his feet and using just one hand! So, absolutely no prizes for guessing who won! That too, in a matter of seconds! Where? At the formal launch in Mumbai of the Jigsaw Challenge, touted as the biggest Online Jigsaw in the world! Consisting of 25,000 pieces, the jigsaw image was designed by New Zealand nature artist Royce B McClure, who in the past 15 years, has had over a hundred puzzles made from his artworks.
Commercially, the puzzle is available in four packets, with the art broken up into four vertical sections that join together to make ‘Life’ and is officially registered in the ‘Guinness Book of Records’ as the world’s largest jigsaw puzzle.
“We’d like to put India on the Sharpest Thinkers Map and enter the record books,”said Vikram Grover of Liptons, which is promoting the jigsaw challenge online. Bernett is the younger of the two siblings, Berenice is a collegian in Trichy where Bernett was born on May 23, 1996. He has been cubing since the age of seven under the tutelage of his father John Louis, who points out that in the last World Cup, Bernett was the only one to compete in all 17 categories and finish in the top 10.
For those who came in late, the Rubik’s Cube is a plastic cube consisting of smaller cubes of different colours on each side and the challenge is to jumble them up and rearrange them in the cube’s original position.
This writer told Bernett that Erno Rubik, architect, inventor, sculptor, university professor and creator of the cube had visited Mumbai at the invitation of Zargham Haider, the late director of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations before Bernett was born and he smiled and said, yes, he participated in the World Rubik’s Cube Championships in Budapest, Hungary and Erno Rubik had awarded the prizes in person.
Prof Rubik created his cube in 1974. Today, the Rubik’s Cube is, arguably, the world’s favourite toy and part of the Oxford English Dictionary. Prof Rubik has established the International Rubik Foundation to support talented young designers. Today, solving the Rubik’s Cube is not just timepass but a popular, competitive sport worldwide. And this is where Bernett has brought laurels to the country.
At the formal opening of the challenge, Rahul Bose remarked, “This concept of an online puzzle is very innovative and unique. Today, youngsters give more importance to physical health and often ignore their mental well being. An initiative like this will help test their ability to stay focused.”
Bernett said he is “very happy to be associated with this challenge that attempts to make a world record.” His dad, John Louis is an international memory trainer who is already in the Limca Book of Records for his feat of memorising 2400 random numbers and 3600 binary digits, 20 decks of cards among other achievements. John can also memorise a full deck of cards in a minute!
Bernett himself takes 15 minutes to memorise a card deck and it will probably take a while before he can pose a challenge to his father. But Bernett can recall the cards correctly in five minutes and call the day for any date between 1600 and 2099.
When he grows up, he wants to be a computer science engineer. Bernett loves playing cricket and computer games; his school, St James, teachers, friends, family and of course cubing “which exercises my brain and helps me with concentration and my studies.”