Don’t forget to remember

The human mind is amazing.. It functions round the clock, 24x7, but stops exactly when we enter the examination hall - experienced this umpteen number of times? I have!!

During exams I have worked so hard to cram in information all at a time, everyday the type of information changed, depending on the subject, and I have always been amazed at how submissive my brain is to all my expeditions! I have gone from studying Science with all the human processes, to Hindi with reading Munshi Premchand and Ramdhari Singh “Dinkar”, to memorising the kaanas and matras in Marathi. Over the years it has adapted from the content at school, to graduation and now post graduation, from languages to Physics and now Management Studies!

The human mind processes information and stores it and that’s how we have memories, some we remember, some we don’t. Like the breath-taking views atop a mountain, the time spent with friends, the time spent with a loved one - yea a bunch of good memories. Also the times we stood paralysed on the stage, the time we wept before 200 people, or the time(s) we stood in traffic and our vehicle refused to start – yea a host of bad memories too!

But through it all, my brain retained very little except what it thought important and useful – and some of which had absolutely no relevance!!

And then there is this – “kissa phone number ka” I used to talk to this individual quite often, and I had the number stored not only in my phone but also in my memory, I could dial it anywhere anytime, but then due to certain fall-outs, he did not remain a very good friend of mine, so I tried deleting his number, but heck, when the number would flash on my screen, I knew it was him! My brain would just not forget his number!! I thought about his number right now and I still remember it!

That’s the crazy thing about our brains, it remembers the good times, the bad times and the ugly times too, and all these memories together create a whole big entity – US. It shapes the way we approach our future lives, if we choose to wallow over the bad ones, we become apprehensive, and if we choose to focus on the good times, it will bring this smile on your face.

Michel de Montaigne said “Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it. Hmm.. so there’s a thought.. the next time you want a man to remember an important date try “Don’t forget to remember”.. maybe that ought to do the trick.. ;)