TO FORGET IS MY BIRTHRIGHT!

 From Sampath’s Desk:

TO FORGET IS MY BIRTHRIGHT!

 

I reserve my right to forget!

 

‘Memory loss’ sets in with ageing, people believe so. The medical world gives high-sounding and petrifying terms like Amnesia, Senile Dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, memory impairment, etc., categorizing and giving nomenclature like mild, moderate, severe, short-term, long-term, temporary, permanent, curable, incurable, etc. Here I don’t intend discussing it as any underlying medical problem or disease but as something part of life experienced by elder or middle-aged persons at one point of time or another in his/her life, and for some others, even at a relatively younger age. I would only like to delve into failure simpliciter to remember when one needs to viz. names of persons, dates, days, numbers, events, interactions, experiences and other allied matters, the main reason behind being the many-inputs-cluttered-brain just like a hard disk or pen drive loaded up to the hilt and unable to accept any more input beyond the threshold. Some memories never fade out with age as they are well embedded in the brain and deeply entrenched in the memory lane, just as a nail screwed into the trunk of a green-stemmed tree in its formative stages and subsequently becoming too strong and formidable to be unscrewed and taken out from the full-fledged grown-up tree. Such memories will be unassailable and undeletable.

 

Short-term memory loss is forgetting or failure to remember things you saw, heard or did, which however is normal part of getting old for many. However, there are exceptions where even some oldies do have pin-sharp memory.

 

I would always keep things at the same places, use them whenever necessary and put them back in the same places after done with, even if it meant umpteen times a day; lest precious time is lost in tracing them whenever they are needed. I would ready my bag in advance on the previous night itself with things and papers required for the next day so that I could readily spread my wings to office hassle-free. Last minute haste makes waste.

 

I always maintained a ‘to do list’ in my digital diary/computer at home and workplace. I never believed my memory alone. The mobile has now revolutionized the memory tasks with its reminder and other allied services. And if I were to go to an outstation, I would start readying my baggage few days in advance. In addition to standard check-list method, I would go on putting things in my suit-case/travel bags to be carried along, as and when they hit my mind.

 

Some funny incidents are common with me. In order to fetch something from the fridge or some other place, I would set out for the destination only to soon forget what that ‘something’ was? While sometimes it would only take a few seconds to recall, at times I might have to go back to the place from where I set out in the fond hope of retrieving the lost memory. Rarely, I may have to do a brain-scratch as well!

 

Science confirms that forgetting things is actually a sign of high intelligence. So, I can perhaps raise my shirt collars up! Can I?

 

Once I forgot the name of a friend whom I met and was talking with for at least 30 minutes. I racked my brain in the search for his identity. During the entire conversation I cleverly managed without calling his name at all. The moment he left, his name suddenly flashed in my mind. Funny and baffling though, it did happen! It was just a freaky event indeed!

 

Another friend of mine boastfully claimed that he was a blend of both perfectionist and non-perfectionist. Explaining he quipped, “I am perfect in forgetting and imperfect in remembering.” My wife is a perfectionist with a difference. She would put important things in what she claims as the ‘safest place on the Earth’ and then forget what that place is? Then a ‘wild goose hunt’ would start to trace it.

 

The general reasons for inability to remember, I suppose, are overloaded human working memory, ageing brain, many thoughts lurking inside the pre-occupied mind, etc., with underlying stress, anxiety, tension, worry, fear, apprehension, over physical straining, lack of enough sleep, etc.

 

People do give some tips to remember things. But what about forgetting the tips themselves? A gentleman subtly put it, “I have reached an age where my train of thought often leaves the station without me.”

 

Another claimed with pride, “I was taking memory-enhancing drugs and now (in 2020) I can remember all the drugs I took in the 1980’s and 1990’s.” One knows not how long it would take for him to remember the events thereafter till date?

 

With all said and done, I am not ready to give up my right to forget. Yes, I reserve my birthright to forget.

 

(R.SAMPATH)