BOMBAY TIMES (June 13, 2020)

Through the Coronavirus lockdown phase that just went by, we saw a lot of celebrities keeping themselves busy with various activities — from domestic chores like cooking, cleaning to working out, binge-watching movies and even getting creative with writing poetry and making songs. On the other hand, actress Parineeti Chopra told BT that going on a movie-watching spree is not really her thing, and neither does she want to get into a zone where she becomes too laidback.

Other than listening to film narrations, what she did was use a lot of her time to indulge in solving really complex jigsaw puzzles. “Apart from work, I spend a lot of time, solving giant jigsaw puzzles, which I had ordered before the lockdown. The one that I have been working on is a 3,000-piece puzzle; it’s a huge one. It occupies almost an entire table in my house,” says the actress.

Talking about her passion for puzzles, she adds that it is no mean feat to solve one and you need a certain skill set to be able to crack it. “I think you need to have a genuine talent for solving puzzles; not everyone can do it. Sometimes it takes weeks to finish these large puzzles, but I love them. In fact, my friends even send me code-breaking books and puzzles. You will often find me sitting and breaking codes or solving puzzles. I am obsessed with them. I am like Ross from Friends. I am that person who wants to come back home, sit with a glass of wine and solve puzzles.”

The actress, who is academically inclined and holds a triple honours degree, admits that besides solving puzzles and breaking codes, she is always eager to gather information and knowledge about various subjects. She says, “If there’s anything that people are talking about that I don’t know about, I actually go out of the room and read about it. I cannot bear not knowing about it. In fact, I don’t even like to watch too many shows or movies, instead, I like doing things like these. My friends often get irritated with me because if they happen to ask me a simple question, I go into the entire thesis of it (laughs!).”