CHENNAI: Ardent followers of the TV series Flash will know how the mind of the exceedingly nimble Barry Allen works. From his perspective, it would seem as though us ‘non-supers’ were suspended in a pool of Jell-O. And that is how it is for Lakshimi Shree Rajaram, an 18-year-old Rubik’s cuber based in Chennai. Armed with the hand-eye coordination of an eagle, she has carved a niche for herself as one of the few female cubers who actively engage in competitions worldwide.
Lakshimi’s tale is akin to that of a cube. It is pieced together to reveal the finished article and she recounts it, from the beginning to end with it culminating in a ticket to the Red Bull Rubik’s Cube World Cup finals in Russia on November 17. The regional qualifiers held in Chennai saw four women cubers. The hunger to make a name for herself in a male-dominated field — only 9 women took part in Russia — drove her and continues to drive her to this day. “I wanted to show that we can do it.”
And through her expedition to Russia, she has taken a significant step in proving her detractors wrong. What began as a hobby for the alumna of Bose Public School unfolded into something bigger. “My brother has taken part in competitions and seeing him with the cube intrigued me,” she said. Countless lessons and YouTube videos later, she made inroads into the arena, at the age of 14.
Moscow served as a learning curve for the BS Abdur Rahman Crescent University student. She had to navigate through two rounds of qualifiers before she was deemed eligible. Eventually, she finished last in the mixed category and succumbed to Dana Yi in the women’s Speed Cubing class to finish eighth out of nine positions.
“The aim was to make it to the second round,” she said. Even though the tournament was not officially recognised by the World Cubers Association, it provided a platform to pit oneself against the best in the world. Lakshimi hopes that through enough effort, she will be able to chalk three seconds off her tally and finish among the top-4 next year.
Contrary to perception, a Rubik’s cube tournament consists of categories other than the 3x3x3 cube — 4x4x4, 5x5x5, the megaminx, the pyraminx and much more. One of Lakshimi’s strongholds is solving the 3x3x3 cube with her feet, an exercise which was not part of the World Cup. In this category, she is ranked 9th in India and 147th in the world.
“Initially, I used to be able to complete the cube in about 3 minutes,” she said. After learning that it wasn’t a bad figure to work with, she decided to invest her efforts into the bracket and now, her best is 36:64 (ss:uu), which landed her the gold medal at the SRM cube open in 2018. And one day, she hopes to inspire more women to take a plunge into the sport.
“I have encouraged a lot of my friends to pick up a cube”. With a Bachelor of Commerce degree in one hand and a cube on the other, Lakshimi hopes to etch her name into the community of women leaders one day.