How we connect with each other with the web based game Wordle
We got addicted to the web-based game Wordle
Much ink has flowed since New York Times bought the puzzle Wordle from its creator, the Welsh software engineer Josh Wardle in January 2022. It is now one of the most popular web-based word games.
The game’s rapid rise to popularity is, to say the least, phenomenal. On November 1, 2021, only ninety players played the game. On January 2, 2022, the number was three lac, and the figure rose to two million a week later.
But this post is not about the game Wordly. I can hardly add anything new to the discourse.
This post is about how the game recently changed my relationship with people around me.
Falling in love is easy, staying in love is hard.
Human relationships are unique and diverse. As unique and as diverse as the individuals are. It changes and evolves as the relationship matures.
No two relationships are similar. Relationships between the siblings, friends, mates, parents, child, and of course with one’s spouse - all are as different as they could get.
But through all the ebb and flow of the relationship, it requires a prop that acts as a glue to hold the relationship together. Without a prop, no relationship sustains. There must be a common thread that both the persons in the relationship must have in common.
The prop or the glue also changes and evolves depending on the stage the relationship is in. As the relationship evolves, the prop evolves as well.
As we meander about in our lives we hold on to different props to hold on to our ever-changing relationships.
The prop that holds the relationship together can be anything - as diverse as the chalk and the cheese. This could be a project that requires to be finished within a specific time. Or it could as well be a challenge in life that requires one’s wholehearted attention. It could be as challenging as raising kids or keeping the home fire burning. Even taking care of a chronically sick relative can act as the glue in the relationship between two individuals.
I've seen relationships falling apart due to the absence of a common goal that could act like glue holding the relationship together. This might as well be the bane that ails the modern family.
It's also true that the same prop will not work for an ever-changing relationship. It's crucial to invent newer props as the relationship evolves. If it comes naturally, it will be a blessing. Otherwise, the need to invent a prop is paramount.
When I look back on my past, I find I have used different props to keep my relationships going. As a kid growing up, street cricket was a great prop to forge relationships with the kids in the neighborhood. When in school, playing various games in the sprawling green during the hour-long recess, was a great prop to cement relationships - creating long-lasting friends.
Even getting punished by the teachers, for doing something wrong, real or imagined (by the teachers), acting as a prop to cement relationships with friends
In my professional life, working in the same team or on the same project has acted as a prop. Once the team changes or the project is completed, the relationship grew thin.
Later in life, after getting married, the prop is different. Getting to know each other, meeting society’s expectations, and the focus to overcome the challenges that one encounter became the prop to sustain the relationship.
But that getting to know each other phase doesn't last long. I was lucky to have started a family quite early in my conjugal life. Bringing up kids, and the challenges associated with it became a prop that sustained and watered our relationship till now, making it stronger.
Now that the kids have grown up and do not require our daily involvement, I was feeling the absence of a prop that helps a relationship to sustain.
My habit of reading books never worked as a prop with which to forge the relationship ahead in our marriage. Lucky are those couples, who have things in common, other than the challenges of keeping a family together.
There was a time when I was addicted to the game Sudoku. Not a day would be over without me completing the two puzzles in the daily newspaper. But that remained a personal passion, never an endeavor that we shared.
The arrival of this web-based game Wordle changed all that. It has again kindled the fire of togetherness. It broke the thaw that precipitated recently after the kids grew up.
Now every morning, with a steaming cup of tea we spend time together trying to solve the puzzle - looking for the day’s word. Both of us are glued to our respective mobile screens, sometimes sharing insights, and trying to guess our way to the right word.
Not all days we could solve the puzzle during that half an hour of our morning tea time. It very often extends beyond that short window of time. In reality, there is a sense of letdown, if one of us gets the word right in too short a time.
Even if we are apart, doing our separate things, I in my workplace and she at home, we keep on working on the puzzle. It is not that we are obsessed with it. It is just that the game is at the back of our minds. We are busy doing our respective chores, yet we are playing the game in our subconscious minds. And when we solve the puzzle, we share the success, of course without divulging the correct word.
When we meet late in the evening, the day’s puzzle remains one of the welcome topics - the steps we individually took to solve the puzzle.
The game has a unique way to unfold.
It starts with being a wild guessing game. After the first guess, if one is lucky, but most often, from the second step, it slowly unfolds as a logical reasoning game.
Each letter, the vowel, and the consonant, in the English alphabet, become important with lots of possibilities.
The game is to guess a five letters word. The player gets only six chances to come up with the right word. All the letters of the word turn green once the player comes up with the correct word. Till such time, in each attempt, the letters turn into grey, yellow or green, depending on their position in the wrong word. Letters with the color grey mean, the correct word will not consist of those letters. Letters with the color yellow mean, the letters will be in the correct word but is now in the wrong places. Letters with the color green mean, the letters are in the correct word and in the right place as will be in the correct word.
The goal is to find a word where all the letters turn green. One feels a sense of thrill when letters turn green, one by one, on the screen.
We are now addicted to the game, as we are addicted to our morning cup of tea. One wonders how long this fad would last. I am waiting. After almost three decades of togetherness, still looking forward to discovering new colors, that would sustain the relationship for another few decades.
A perfect marriage is two imperfect people who refuse to give up on each other.
