All eyes will be on world record holder Amaan Ali as National Memory C’ship comes to Mumbai.
They can identify criminals with ease, as well as track down lost vehicles. Facts, features, faces, numbers — everything is stored in their mind like a picture. No, they don’t belong to any Hollywood science fiction film but are normal human beings. However, their brain makes them no less than a superhero — they are memory athletes. And they are all set to participate in the fifth National Memory Championship in Mumbai from today.
Hyderabad have hosted the touney since four years. Among the Mumbaikars who have thrown their hats in the ring is Amaan Ali, who made a world record last year.
In the category called ‘Names and Faces’ — the 13-year-old lad retained 27 names in a span of 22 minutes. The contestants are given containing names and corresponding photographs and they have five minutes to memorise. After a break of two minutes, they have to match jumbled up contents in 15 minutes.
“Names of Israelis, Taiwanese, Chinese and others are provided initially. Later, they are provided in a jumbled up manner from where the participant has to connect the names with faces,” said National Memory Council of India (NMCI) member Altaf Shaikh, who is also Ali’s father.
So how does a memory athlete practise? “There are various techniques. You make connections in your mind and have to remember numbers. You have to make codes in your mind as well. Each number stands for an object and random numbers have to be remembered like a story. That’s how I do it,” said Ali.
Being a memory athlete has also helped Ali’s academics. “I hated Mathematics. Now, knowing numbers well and with the memory power I have, it becomes easy. I also use my techniques for other subjects like Geography,” he added.
The best part of the tournament is that there is no age bar. Hence, another extreme among the participants is 65-year-old Prakash Joshi — a retired multinational company employee.
Joshi thought of staying fit during his superannuation and hence, chose to jump into the numerical river. “I started last year when Vikrant Chaphekar (a memory trainer) made me believe that one could remember a pack of 52 cards in 10 minutes,” he said.
He added that memory athletes can remember faces, even their features, so if they are shown a wanted criminal’s photograph, they would easily remember and identify the subject if they ever cross paths.
“I would love to help the police. Even Vikrant suggested it. If our brain can be used to kill corruption, that would be the best possible gift for us,” he added.
Ten categories of memory test
1. Spoken Numbers
2. Playing Cards
3. Historic/Future Dates
4. Binary Numbers
5. Random Words
6. Abstract Images
7. Names and Faces
8. Random Numbers
9. Speed Numbers
10. Speed Cards
source : http://www.dnaindia.com / DNA / Home> Sport> Report / by Wriddhaayan Bhattacharyya / Place:Mumbai, Agency:DNA / Sunday – October 20th, 2013