Tetris

On a hot summer noon in 2007, I walked into the my friend’s half cabin at work. Those were the days when we were ineffectively trying to restore normalcy to a project that was spiraling out of control. Those were the days when everyone was hiring like no tomorrow and the “more-with-less” slogan had not caught up yet.

When I walked in, I found my friend slouching in front of his laptop. He was facing me and as a result, I was not able to see his screen. His eyebrows met reflecting the intensity at which he was staring at the screen. His skin on his forehead was twisted to reveal treble-chins. His fingers were tapping on the keyboard silently but fervently.

He looked up as soon as I entered for an instant. After hitting the keyboard for a few more seconds, he again looked up and mouthed something unclear. Sensing that he was sharing a secret, I replied softly in a low tone, “Pardon?!”. He raised his voice a notch and replied “Tetris”.

In the ensuing months, I also played Tetris to bring down the stress levels and Tetris helped me during those difficult times. It has been 25 years since it’s inception and it has been termed as one of the greatest time wasters. The creator of Tetris, Alexey Pajitnov, explains the story behind Tetris in an interview. As a Soviet citizen, he did not control over the game. With the disintegration of USSR, there was a confusion on the rights over Tetris. All is well that ends well. Now, he owns the rights over the game.

Tags: Musings,People,Audios,Tetris,Alexey Pajitnov