Forget Gone in 60 Seconds, what do you think you can do in 10 seconds? Laymen like you and I could probably identify the number of colours on one side of a shuffled Rubik's cube. That definitely isn't all 19-year-old Lakshmi Rajaram can do. In that short span of time, she can solve it — like get all the colours to line up on the same side types. So it wouldn't be a surprise if we tell you that she recently won the Speed Cubing part (in the female category) of the Red Bull Rubik's Cube World Cup 2020 India which was recently held online.
A II year BCom student at Chennai's B S Abdur Rahman Crescent Institute Of Science And Technology, she says that she got into cubing five years ago, as a ninth-grader. "My brother is pretty good at cubing. Watching him solve Rubik's cubes is what intrigued me to try my hand at it," says Lakshmi. While initially, she couldn't beat her brother, she says that participating in cubing events helped her a lot. "That is the best way to keep yourself motivated," she says.
Throughout our conversation via Zoom, Lakshmi shuffled and solved a cube. The speed and poise that she displayed was immense fun to look at. It makes you wonder how much time you'd hve to spend with a cube to get that good, She confesses that she carries one with her all the time. "Even when I am hanging out with my friends or watching TV, I have a cube with me. I constantly try to solve it. I'm in a constant race with myself," she says.
Before she signed off, she showed us another one of her superpowers — solving a cube with her feet. No, like seriously. "This used to be a competitive category previously and my brother and I have won several titles here. But these days, we just do it for fun," she says.
