Impuzzible is nothing

Vikramaditya Burman peers intently at the tiny cardboard pieces that lie in a mound on his desk. Slowly,he begins to pick through them,rummaging through the pile for interlocking pieces. As he tiles them together,fragments of an image begin to take shape. In a week,he will have a full image ready. Each of these,with their tessellated pieces in place,will then be framed for an exhibition that the 65-year-old will hold at Market Café in Khan Market in November.

Burman’s is an unusual art form (he’s not sure he even calls it an art)—solving giant jigsaw puzzles. “Think of a large picture,break it up into 1,500 pieces and then try to put it all back together,” he says. What would sound frustrating for most is “like meditation” for Burman. It takes an artist’s eye for colour and detail to guide him through,a mathematician’s obsession with precision and a patience that only passion can bring. “There are always a few misfits that belong to some other part of the picture and I cannot get it right no matter how hard I try. Then suddenly,at 3 a.m.,I will wake up with all the pieces floating before my eyes and the answer will be there,” he says.

Most people have solved a jigsaw puzzle or two as children; Burman has kept at it since 1970,when he first came across a box at a fair. He now gets relatives in the US and the UK to send him puzzle boxes and can get through one every month. “There are 80 boxes still lying in my cupboard,” he says cheerfully. The images that lie framed in his room from a previous exhibition range from the White House and the Manhattan skyline to the Niagara Falls and the Bryce Canyon. A garden in spring bloom has the least number of pieces,500.

“When I’m with my puzzles,the outside world doesn’t matter. So,every time I’m depressed or stressed,I make my way to my puzzles,” he says. “The puzzles are like life. Some parts easily slip into place while others take forever,but finally,with dexterity and a technique born through experience,we get a beautiful picture.”

His first exhibition,also at Market Café,impressed the young crowd-a crowd that believes in “happy endings”,finding affirmation in the hundreds of pieces interlocked into a final serene image.