Jumble Bumble

‘No jumble solving right now, Ishu,’ Ishita’s mother snatches away The Telegraph from her hand.

‘But Maa….’

‘Come and have your breakfast. Believe it or not, I have errands to finish apart from pampering you and your father.The maid again didn’t come today on top of that,’ she growls.

Looks like Ishita’s mother is in a real bad mood this morning. Ishita gets up without risking anymore argument. When they were in Barrackpore, Mitali di used to help Anamika in the household chores. But they sold their age old three storey home an year ago and shifted to this brand new 3 BHK apartment in Salt Lake. Salt Lake was a convenient choice for Soumen who switched his job to another private firm here two years back. Ishita misses the home she grew up though.

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‘Bye Ishu,’ Soumen cuddles his daughter, takes his car keys and opens the main door.

‘Drive safe, Papa,’ Ishita says while swallowing a piece of puri. College semesters are over which means Ishita doesn’t have much to do at home. Movies, trips to Cafe Coffee Day with friends, YouTube, Agatha Christie and newspaper’s Jumble section are what keeping her busy this summer. 

After gulping down four puris, Ishita again sits with the newspaper. The page with the Jumble to be specific. There will be few words whose letters are jumbled immensely. You need to identify the exact word and arrange the letters in blocks. Few blocks for each word will be highlighted with a circle. The letters which fall into this circle needs to be rearranged to create another fresh set of word(s) that describe an adjacent picture.

The words are quite ordinary in reality but their messed up form gives them a hard-to-crack appeanace. Ishita is trying to solve Jumble for years with a very little success rate. Everyday she picks up the newspaper with great enthusiasm and hope that today she would solve every word. Then she throws away the daily with double frustration after failing each time. 

She looks at the first word and hovers the pencil upon it. The word as usual is making no sense to her.

OMTB 

‘Again a weird word,’ Ishita sighs and stares at it. She slowly scribbles with pencil in the blocks. 

T

O

M

B

‘Not bad,’ Ishita smiles after solving the first word within a record one minute. She looks at the next word.

DLOCU 

Ishita’s face glows after biting the end of the pencil for a couple of seconds. She starts showing the  letters their correct homes in the blocks.

C

O

U

L

D

But then, it’s too early to feel excited. She thinks. The game is famous for tricking Ishita with craziest yet silly words. Look at this for example. What on earth could be LRYAE? She frowns looking at the word and writes…

E

A

R

L

Y

‘What’s wrong with me today?’ Ishita doesn’t remember the last time she had solved more than two words in a single day. Rest of the game soon became a cake walk.   

ACRKC 

C

R

A

C

K

HOERTM

M

O

T

H

E

R

Ishita arranges all the letters in circles (here in bold and italic) together.

OBCEACKME

And then she rearranges the words into the result block. The words say –

C

O

M

E

B

A

C

K

‘Whoa,’ Ishita throws her hands in the air as if she has just climbed the peak of Mount Everest. Solving jumble can be real fun only if you are able to solve all the words. She now can’t wait for tomorrow’s Telegraph.

DAY 2 :

Ishita is once again back with a pencil next morning and grabs the newspaper. After half an hour, she is sitting content with the smile of a winner. All her effort throughout the years behind solving jumbles is gradually seeing some success after all. A satisfied Ishita looks at the solved words one more time.

BORIT

O

R

B

I

T

MBNU

N

U

M

B

KCALET 

T

A

C

K

L

E

OEUSH

H

O

U

S

E

SHEISRE

H

E

I

R

E

S

S

EDIL

I

D

L

E

ORTNTAHSEESID

N

O

R

T

H

–

E

A

S

T

S

I

D

E

DAY 3 : 

MELBRA

R

A

M

B

L

E

DNEONU

U

N

D

O

N

E

WREYHAI

H

A

Y

W

I

R

E

EIDSPU

U

P

S

I

D

E

RUHYRUP

H

U

R

R

Y

U

P

‘That’s it. I think none can beat me in this game now,’ Ishita puts the newspaper back on the coffee table. 

DAY 4 : 

It took Ishita almost an hour today to solve these words. However, she is more than satisfied with the way her jumble solving power is improving day by day. So much so that after Ranbir Kapoor,  the daily newspaper has become her latest obsession. 

LBEISHME 

E

M

B

E

L

I

S

H

EOCRD

D

E

C

O

R

CETKOS

S

O

C

K

E

T

STMCSASHRI

C

H

R

I

S

T

M

A

S

EMEIHDESTCHRIS

C

H

E

R

I

S

H

E

D

I

T

E

M

S

DAY 5 :

Ishita frowns at the word that has resulted from the jumbled words. She rechecks the words but doesn’t find any mistake. 

‘But then, why am I finding it strange? This is not a weird word at all,’ she thinks and glances on today’s exercise.

KARC

R

A

C

K

YBREU

B

U

Y

E

R

LUMLREBEA

U

M

B

R

E

L

L

A

TERTOP

P

O

T

T

E

R

ROWRA

A

R

R

O

W

GAELE

E

A

G

L

E

CKBRAPOARRE

And the word that came out is – 

B

A

R

R

A

C

K

P

O

R

E

DAY 6 : 

Ishita almost jumped in the sofa after solving today’s jumble; not because of excitement. She has goosebumps and is scared as hell to touch the newspaper she was holding couple of minutes ago. 

NOCATI

A

C

T

I

O

N

ERAAOKK

K

A

R

A

O

K

E

TEANHM

A

N

T

H

E

M

OERBX

B

O

X

E

R

AITBH

H

A

B

I

T

HHSU

H

U

S

H

ATKOETHBXEHIUS

T

A

K

E

T

H

E

B

O

X

I

S

H

U

‘What the…..’ she can’t believe her eyes what she has ended up with. Or is this a mere coincidence? She picks up last 6 days’ newspaper from the basket and rushes with them towards the coffee table. A chill ran down her spine after giving a closer look at the solved words.

COME BACK

NORTH-EAST SIDE

HURRY UP

CHERISHED ITEMS

BARRACKPORE

TAKE THE BOX ISHU

‘What’s all this?’ A part of her is telling to dump the newspapers back in the basket and forget the entire episode. But another part is drawing her attention on the words again and again. BARRACKPORE  is the word that aroused her suspicion yesterday. And now TAKE THE BOX ISHU. How can she sit still after this as if nothing has happened? For a moment she thought of showing this to her parents. However, she discarded the idea. Anamika and Soumen won’t take the matter seriously at all. Rather they will laugh at her saying that this is the result of reading detective novels.

Then what should I do now? She thinks as her eyes roam around the letters BARRACKPORE.

******

‘Yes?’ a visibly irritated lady opens the door after Ishita presses the doorbell for the third time. Ishita has probably awaken her up from afternoon nap.

‘Hi, I am Ishita.’

‘Who Ishita?’

‘Ishita…..um….Ishita Mukherjee….we used to stay in this house earlier.’

This ironed the creases on the lady’s forehead a bit.

‘Are you Soumen da’s daughter?’

‘Yes.’

‘Oh my! Come inside. How much you have changed in just one year. You are in college now, right? I am Sujata,’ the lady lets Ishita enter the house where she had spent the best years of her life. The same corridor, the same staircases, the same rooms and the same smell. 

‘Did you have any work here?’ Sujata asks. A seven year old boy is sleeping peacefully in the adjacent bedroom. Ishita takes her seat in the living room sofa.

‘No…was just passing by…so thought of taking a look at the house,’ Ishita lies. But then what is she supposed to say? That some stupid jumble solving exercise has prompted her to come back here?

‘Must be missing your old home,’ Sujata smiles. ‘This house is well maintained but misses the modern touch. So me and my husband have decided to do some renovations. Tomorrow onwards, will start the renovation job from the north-east side of the house. I want the puja room to be more elaborate and….’

NORTH-EAST SIDE ! PUJA ROOM ! That was her grandma’s bedroom. Ishita feels something hard stuck inside her throat.

‘If you don’t mind, can I roam around the house a bit?’ she asks Sujata.

‘Sure. Why not? After all it’s your house only,’ Sujata gives a genuine laugh. ‘Let me arrange something for you to eat while you take a tour of the house.’

‘Thank you,’ Ishita gives a customary smile and climbs the second storey of the house in one breath. Grandma’s room. Thankfully the doors are open as if the room is waiting for Ishita’s arrival.

Ishita enters the room. The room devoid of grandma’s bed and other furniture is looking more spacious. Ishita roams aimlessly in the room but finds nothing that can make sense to the puzzle. She turns towards the door to step out when a sight almost knocks the air out of her. 

A BOX ! A medium sized sealed cardboard box is lying just behind the open door. Wasting no more minutes, Ishita runs towards it and tears the seal with her bare fingers. And then she sits motionless there for some time. 

******

‘Hello. Is this The Telegraph’s Kolkata office?’

‘Yes,’ a male voice answers Ishita’s call. ‘How can I help you Ma’am?’

‘Can you give me the contact number of the person who is framing the Jumble section in your paper  for the past one week?’

‘I am afraid we can’t share contact details of our staffs, Ma’am. Moreover, the lady was hired on temporary basis for this Jumble job…..’

‘See it would be very kind of you if you can give me the lady’s contact number.’

‘Listen Ma’am….’

‘Please.It’s urgent.’ Ishita begs.

‘Okay,’ the voice sighs, ‘She has left the job, however….note down the number…..9834….’

‘Thanks,’ Ishita hangs up the call and dials the lady’s number.

‘The number you have dialled doesn’t exist,’ comes an automated voice’s response. Ishita dials the number three more times. Same response. She gives up finally.

The Bhagavad Gita, three volumes on Lord Sri Krishna’s mortal life and preachings, a cashmere blue shawl and a peacock feather are resting inside the box on her bed. These were Pankajini, Ishita’s grandma’s most cherished items. When Pankajini read excerpts from the Gita and shared stories of Shri Krishna, Ishita used to sit quietly beside her. 

‘Grandma, I will keep all these books with me,’ small Ishita would say.

‘Sure dear, I will give all my cherished items to my Ishu one day,’ grandma replied with a smile.

‘I love your blue shawl too.’

‘Really?And what else does my Ishu like?’ she used to give a toothless laugh.

It was only after grandma passed away last year that Soumen sold the house. They thought they had brought all their valuable belongings with them. Little did they know, that the most precious items were lying neglected in one corner of their house. Even Ishita had forgotten about them. Until this jumble incident made her remember their existence.  

Ishita looks at the box lying on her bed. Her conscience is not ready to accept what it had witnessed and sensed today. What explanation would she give to her parents? Or is it better for some jumbles to remain as an unsolved secret? Her eyes turn towards her smiling grandma’s picture hanging in the wall.