Key Points
- Dr Sarma and his wife were unexpectedly compelled to stay in Australia for three years due to the pandemic.
- He passed on his unique memory reading technique to his grandson Mayukh.
- Mayukh has gone on to achieve world records with his memory skills.
When Vanam Venkata Lakshmi Narasimha Sarma and his wife Sandhya visited Australia in 2020 to spend time with their daughter’s family, they didn't realise they'd end up staying for three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns and border closures.
However, the couple, who hail from Khammam city in southern India, made the most of the unexpected circumstances.
During this time, Dr Sarma passed on his unique talent for memory reading to his grandson, Mayukh Prakhya, who is now eight years old.
"Everything happens for a reason. I happily spent time with my grandchildren, teaching them our Telugu culture, and with their immense talent in remembering, I got the idea to teach them memory reading," he told SBS Telugu.
What is 'memory reading'?
Dr Sarma is a retired district officer who worked in intermediate education department in India for 33 years. He received a doctorate in botany in 1977. Both he and Sandyha are retired botany professors.
Dr Sarma said he mastered a technique called “mnemonics” which involves using a word, poem or short sentence to help remember something more elaborate or complicated.
As an example, to remember the order of the planets, someone might think of the sentence “My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas” with each of the words representing a planet (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto).
I aced this technique on my own without any guidance, practicing tirelessly and diligently to associate each digit with an object. It took several months of practice.Dr Sarma
He said he used this technique to train students to remember botany concepts. Later on, he extended it to other subjects like English grammar too.
"I extended my help to many students in my college, teaching them this method, which significantly aided them in clearing their exams effortlessly," he said.
Dr Sarma has accrued a number of achievements using his unique talent, including recognition from the Harvard World Records (London) and the International Genius Book of Records 2018.
For most of the records, he was able to recite the 500 digits of Pi value from front and back in a short space of time. In 2018, he recited up to 500 digits of the value of 'Pi' in one minute and 21 seconds and in 2022, he displayed a special skill by reciting the value of Pi simultaneously forward and backward up to 500 digits in five minutes.
Runs in the family
The pair have since shared the technique with their family in Australia.
With a lot of practice, hard work and perseverance, as well as the patience of his grandfather, Mayukh memorised the names of 193 capital cities of the world and the names of 386 cars.
Dr Sarma teaching Mayukh. Credit: Supplied
Mayukh set a world record on 23 July, 2021, by memorising all 118 elements of the periodic table and reciting them in record time. He identified all the elements and their symbols in 30.14 seconds and 58 seconds respectively.
"We were on cloud nine when we were successful on attaining our goal," Dr Sarma said.
I always believe that success is no accident and it is the fruit of incessant hard work, perseverance and learning. The only place where success comes before work is the dictionary.Dr Sarma
Inspired by her older brother’s achievements, younger sister Mihira is also trying to achieve records.
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