I got my first Rubik's Cube in 2015 and since then cubing has been a big part of my life.
I would have never imagined that this simple toy will end up doing so much for me and take me to places I could never imagine.
I was always the kid who had a lot of hobbies - making paper origami figures, doing card magic, playing sports, trying an instrument, and whatnot. While I used to do these hobbies I was “good” at them but never really was “great”. Cubing started as just another hobby but quickly became something more.
I got my first Rubik Cube a day before Diwali when my dad and I were at a toy shop buying gifts for a cousin who was supposed to come over the next day, I was a young kid so obviously, I wanted something for myself, and asked my dad for that big remote helicopter kept on display in the shop, my dad said I’ll end up breaking that in 2 days and instead bought me a Rubik’s cube Now imagine giving a kid a plastic toy with colors on it when all he wanted was this cool toy that flies.
After that, I spent the next few weeks going through all sorts of videos, articles, blogs to learn how to solve the cube and after some trying I was able to solve it for the first time. I remember how excited I was when I saw those colors match up for the first time, I was jumping all around my house with the solved cube in my hand.
I continued solving, learned more about speedcubing, started buying more cubes, getting faster, and then I was OBSESSED. Cubing was the only thing I was doing and when I wasn’t doing that I was watching YouTube videos about cubing, I had a cube with me at all times, everywhere.
I started getting a bit faster and went to my first Rubik’s Cube Competition, I didn’t even end up making it to the second round, but I had a lot of fun. I continued cubing, started getting faster, and went to more competitions. For the first few years of me competing I never even came close to winning but I was having fun and that’s the only reason why I continued cubing.
After a few years, 10,000s of solves, and a lot of practice I finally started winning in competitions, In 2018 I saw in a cubing Facebook group that someone from India had broken a Guinness World Record, I thought to myself if someone else could do it why can’t I so that’s how I decided to try breaking my first Guinness World Record.
I found a record I wanted to break and after practicing for months I was able to break my first Guinness World Record in 2019, reading that confirmation email is probably one of the best moments I’ve lived. Who knew playing with puzzles would leave me with a Guinness World Record.
I attempted my 2nd Guinness World Record in 2020 but this time someone beat me to it, I had submitted a time for the record attempt, and in that process someone else came and beat me and set a faster record, it was very disheartening but that’s life at times. After some more practice in 2021 I decided to attempt this record once again and this time I ended up breaking it.
I attempted and broke my 3rd Guinness World Record in 2022
The 3 Guinness World Record titles I had were -
- Fastest time to solve a Rubik's Cube while Hula Hooping - 15.75 Seconds
- Fastest time to solve a Rubik's Cube on a bicycle - 12.90 Seconds
- Fastest time to solve a Pyraminx while Hula Hooping - 5.78 Seconds
I had my “overnight success” moment when in 2022 after I broke my 2nd World Record, I was posted on the official Guinness World Record social media handles, that just changed everything for me. I was suddenly being covered by every news channel in the country, people were contacting me, I was making it to articles and for the first time I had this sort of “fame’” come to me, it felt like people at least knew who I was. My overnight success that took 6 years to come.
I've been on all major news channels of the country, some of them being Economic Times, The Hindustan Times, Zee News etc. You can find some of my news appearances here
I continue to keep cubing and am not done yet. I have a few more records I'm eyeing for. I'm excited to see where this journey takes me.
I owe a lot to the Rubik's Cube, I've been able to do a lot of things because it - my first podcast appearance, my first speaking opportunity, my first sponsorship, and my first business too. The journey has been a crazy one and I can't wait to see what happens next.
If you want to read more about my Cubing journey, I wrote a detailed blog about it a while ago, you could check it out here.