Memory works in mysterious ways. The other day, I smelled something that reminded me of a smell that I experienced about 25 years ago, while I was playing chess on a particular day, in the backyard of our house. That immediately brought up the visual memory of a kettle of water being boiled close to me on coal fire at that time, the heat from it, our maid servant fanning the flames, ...everything. I am sure everyone can relate to similar experiences.
The key thing for memory is making connections, as scientists have discovered; the more the connections, the better the memory. I read a book How to Develop Super Power Memory while I was working in Alirajpur and it listed some nice memory techniques. Using methods in this book, I used to be able to perform exercises like memorizing 15 random things and their sequence, just for fun; with tons of free time, I had nothing better to do in that teeny tiny town in the middle of no where.
Few examples - I will never forget that Bobby Fischer died at the age of 64, as he was a chess champ, and chess board has 64 squares (memory by association). I used to have a tough time in remembering the direction for tightening (or untightening) a screw, until I heard "lefty, loosey - righty, tighty" (memory with rhyme). Also, I know that Stalactite grows from the ceiling, as the word has letter "c" in it, and stalagmite grows from the ground up, as the word has letter "g" in it. These memory aids remind me of a Seinfeld episode :-). Lastly, I may be able to find a Bata store in Tamil Nadu, even when store signs are posted in Tamil language. When I visited Chennai in '89, my friend Sarma gave me a mnemonic for Bata sign in Tamil - U Pi L Dot L Pi (UπL.Lπ) and I just can't get it out of my head!
Few examples - I will never forget that Bobby Fischer died at the age of 64, as he was a chess champ, and chess board has 64 squares (memory by association). I used to have a tough time in remembering the direction for tightening (or untightening) a screw, until I heard "lefty, loosey - righty, tighty" (memory with rhyme). Also, I know that Stalactite grows from the ceiling, as the word has letter "c" in it, and stalagmite grows from the ground up, as the word has letter "g" in it. These memory aids remind me of a Seinfeld episode :-). Lastly, I may be able to find a Bata store in Tamil Nadu, even when store signs are posted in Tamil language. When I visited Chennai in '89, my friend Sarma gave me a mnemonic for Bata sign in Tamil - U Pi L Dot L Pi (UπL.Lπ) and I just can't get it out of my head!
Of course, there are folks out there with amazing memory powers that may not be achieved with easy techniques. For example, Mr. Akira Haraguchi recited the first 83,431 decimal places of Pi, and Mr. Ben Pridmore was able to memorize a deck of shuffled cards in less than 27 seconds!
Creditors have better memories than debtors. - Benjamin Franklin
The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time. - Nietzsche
God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December. - J.M. Barre
A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness. - Elbert Hubbard
Happiness is good health and bad memory - Albert Schweitzer
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