A puzzling obsession

The Sudoku craze afflicting people everywhere "" in offices and in homes.

My 27-year-old brother is all set to retire. "If I crack the difficulty rating five," he says, "I will retire at the peak of my career." I, on the other hand, am pulling my hair out in despair.

For as long as I can remember I've suffered from numerophobia. I've hated the sight of numerical figures all my life and here I am attempting to solve Sudoku, religiously, every day, without fail.

The phone bills are escalating too, thanks to serious discussions on the subject between colleagues while attempting to solve the puzzle.

Work time is getting used up (our sincere apologies to the editor) to figure out why a particular Sudoku puzzle couldn't be solved and at home one is spending morning time only on the darn puzzle, forgetting that it is eating enormously into daily errands and chores that need urgent attention.

As The Asian Age "" which recently started carrying Sudoku puzzles on a daily basis "" correctly says, "Discover ecstasy, suffer the agony."

An acquaintance has already shifted loyalties from one national newspaper to the other that has started publishing Sudoku puzzles on a daily basis.

The 'Letters to the editor' section in The Hindustan Times had a reader profusely thanking the organisation for "giving us a taste of the current craze, Sudoku, a heady cerebral stimulant".

Though it's too early to take names, a publishing house confirms it is already planning to come out with a special book on Sudoku that will soon be launched in India.

Anand Bhardwaj, VP, marketing, The Hindustan Times. says, "The feedback to Sudoku is tremendous. We were quick to spot this trend and as expected a lot of readers are thoroughly enjoying Sudoku."

He says, "Even within the organisation I know a lot of colleagues who are diligently solving the puzzle." Is he one of them? "Yes, I am," he tells us.

Forget everything else. Right now it's time to do a Sudoku. What is it? What's getting people so addicted to the game?

For a formal introduction, Sudoku essentially is a puzzle wherein a 9x9 grid partially filled with numbers is presented to readers and the solution requires that the empty spaces in the grid be filled in such a manner that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.

Amit Sundra, a self-confessed, puzzle-solving freak has recently taken to Sudoku. He finds Sudoku "very irritatingly absorbing". He adds, "The nagging amount of time it takes to solve the puzzle, as it gets tougher, is sometimes disturbing and taxing on the brain."

For Amit Chordia, a lawyer by profession, "It's a kick I get that inspires me to solve Sudoku." Chordia, after reading about Sudoku on the Net, started solving it and found it distressing every time he couldn't finish it.

While he admits that he still doesn't treat Sudoku like a religion and "bunks it if there isn't much time", his colleague Adheer Saraswat walks into office and informs his colleagues of his daily progress with Sudoku.

In fact, Saraswat and another colleague had a Sudoku competition in office after they'd made copies of the puzzle. While they were engrossed in solving Sudoku, they were lucky not to be caught by their boss who was then taking his regular office rounds.

But what makes Sudoku as exciting as say, the crossword? Saraswat feels, "Any puzzle is a good exercise for the mind. That's probably why Sudoku is so satisfying. Of course, I feel uncomfortable if I can't solve a Sudoku in the morning before leaving for work. But I make it a point to solve the puzzle even if it means staying up late at night."

Saraswat takes anywhere between 10-15 minutes to solve the easier puzzles but admits to have spent nearly two hours sometimes on the particularly difficult ones.

Sundra feels, "There's no scope of making any mistake in Sudoku. There's only one way to reach the correct answer, to fit numbers in the right place. Like any other puzzle or even crossword for that matter Sudoku can be mind-baffling and with a higher rating it gets even more challenging. The reason why I started it was because a lot of people had started talking about it. I had to be part of it."

The reasons may be plenty but Sudoku is fast becoming a favourite with Indians too. Meanwhile, my brother has retired.

Some links:

www.sudoku.com

www.sudoku.org.uk

www.dailysudoku.co.uk

www.sudokufun.com

www.sudoku.com.au