A day after I met with the folks at AyurVaid, I found myself hunting down a virus in The Cure from Thinktank Games. Volume 17 from their Brain Teaser Collection is a two-player 20-minute challenge.

Meeting family after a long time, reminded me why it’s important to subscribe to multiple copies of the newspaper. But after the initial competitive early morning scramble for the Crossword, peace prevailed, and a collaborative effort was agreed upon. In the final tally, my contribution had been minimal.

As an avid worshipper at the alter of Gigamic, my first reaction on opening the box was to dismiss this imitator. Produced by Family Games Inc. with a Canadian postal address, One Up retails at $32, which is pretty much the price point at which one can buy Gigamic games in India.

Armed with a by now thoroughly creased-from-use map of Manhattan, Usha shivered her way through near-zero degree temperatures of late March to Compleat Strategist on 11 East 33rd Street (between Madison and Fifth Avenue). The store was packed to the rafters with tightly crowded shelves with board games of every genre.

Here is another 8-piece brain teaser from thinktank games that’s pure pleasure. The Lindt thins-like pieces fit snugly into a tray. Colourful DNA strands need to match up colour-perfect to each of the adjoining pieces.

The Collaborative Clusters Challenge from the 8012 FT Design Center is a one minute dare, in a slick and sinister all-black finish. Fourteen challenges, eight “lighter than they look” acrylic pieces and a solution guide, should you lose your way! In a seminal piece by Anne-Laure Fayard and John Weeks (professors of management, leadership and organisational behaviour) in the Harvard Business Review, the authors speak persuasively about workplace design that inspires collaborative innovation.

Channapatna is a little town with a huge tourist traffic, strategically located on the Bengaluru-Mysore highway and a destination in its own right. Also called “Gombegalaooru” or toys town, this is the traditional home of wooden toys. Churned out by very small scale units, the range is so wide, you’re bound to come across something offbeat that could make for a perfect keepsake.

From the flamboyantly orange `199 Thinktank volume 8 Brain Teaser collection, emerged eight light weight three-square-centimetre inky blue cubes. Integr8 taunts you with the usual 15 minutes Thinktank dare to solve a seemingly simple challenge with a few play pieces involved.

Wordz! sounds suspiciously like a numerology-driven branding choice, with singularly inauspicious spelling skills for a word game. But get over that and the colour lozenge styled letter tiles, and you’re onto a good thing.

It’s understandable that I was instantly seduced by the elegant black and green see-through packaging with the wooden puzzle snugly housed within. I opened the little box carefully, and had to firmly pry loose the puzzle.