But why puzzles? For the same reason that we play Wordle and other games derived from it: because it is fun. In fact, there are health benefits to puzzle-solving too, as research over the years has shown. For example, a UK study three years ago found that people who solve puzzles have brain function equivalent to people several years younger. But that is the icing on the cake when the basic idea remains simply to enjoy ourselves.

And how does this column work? The old-fashioned way, in the tradition of Lewis Carroll, Martin Gardner and Mukul Sharma. Every week, I bring you one or more mildly challenging puzzles, which means they are neither too easy nor too hard. You write back with the answers, and if you get them right, I acknowledge you the following week.

That is the format I have followed whenever I have written about puzzles over the decades, starting 1993. Of course, things were different back then: readers would send their answers by post, and there was no Internet where they could look up the solutions. In this time and age, I shall try and bring you puzzles that are as original or as obscure as possible. So, here we go:

Do write back with comments, along with your answers to either the mathematical puzzle, or the anagrams, or both. And if you have any puzzles you would like to share with other readers and me, be sure to offer those too.

Send in your replies to problematics@hindustantimes.com