Page 19 - Seniorstoday March 2022 Issue

and improve my felicity with words. Soon acknowledge it publicly.
the afternoon papers like Mid-day and
Afternoon Despatch and Courier came
up with simpler versions of crosswords
which one could solve hundred percent
most times, bringing with it a joy of
‘achievement’ as compared to the tougher
ones. If one were to give an analogy, Wordle
and similar games are the afternoon
versions aimed at engendering feel-good in
the mindspace of the masses. Perhaps, these
help in upping happiness quotients albeit
fleetingly. Little wonder, that the purist
and the serious crossword buffs look at
Wordles of the world disdainfully and you
will never catch them doing it.
Anecdotally, in the group referred to
earlier, there was a strong retort and
rebuff by one of the ‘intellectuals’ in the
group to the daily posting of the Wordle
solutions and Nerdle equations. From a
behavioural perspective, people have lost
a sense of balance in letting things be. Let
some have their moments of joy and fun of
sharing – why decry it and convey one’s
own superiority complex? What are groups
for, but for a mix of banter and debate in
a world already yawningly distanced?
The netizens are myriad and diverse and
come with their fifty shades of mindsets –
wannabes, aspirational, students, entitled,
deprived, enthusiastic, low-esteem, high-
esteem, superiority complex, inferiority
complex, wizards, achievers, failures. They
all go through their daily tribulations and
disappointments. These games on the
social media do serve some social purpose
of salving and salvaging the states of
minds amid these daily challenges and
are welcome relief for them. If they want
to share it, so be it. It teaches us, as well,
equipoise and temperance. We all learn
from netizens, loath though we may be to
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #33 | MARCH 2022
Coming back to my growing up days, I
recall our next-door neighbour religiously
dropping in at 9am every day and
borrowing our newspapers – to solve the
crossword of the day. He was an erudite
doctor, but liked to wield his pen more than
the scalpel. He was a classic cruciverbalist.
These guys can be notorious for not
returning the papers for hours till they
solve the crossword, but that is a different
story. Our family always used to wonder
why he never bought his own newspaper.
We never could get an answer to that, but
we never allowed it bother us or come in the
way either of loving neighbourly interludes
and warmth. The families continue to be
friends though we had moved out some
years ago.
Speaking for myself, I always get excited
with any puzzles and riddles to do with
numbers and words and am thankful to
the several brainy guys who develop these
games. Whenever I feel pressured or down,
which is not too often, I dabble in these
and do get immense pleasure and have no
reservations in saying so. Yes, a private
person that I am, I refrain from painting the
social media red with these posts.
As I sign off, I can think of a clear impact
area or use case for Wordle. I will be
sharing the links to Wordle and Nerdle
with my two young enthusiastic students,
aged 12 and 14, called Meenu and Renu,
up north in a rustic area, to whom I teach
English on and often. I am sure they will
be delighted and excited to solve them
and find some meaning. For in them, I
foresee lettered women of 3 R and felicity
impacting our world much more than we
can imagine today. Word is a Wordle and
discovering one can be a game changer. Ask
the wordsmith and the bard!
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