Akshatha Swaroopa, a resident of Kunjathbail and a student of Gopadkar’s Swaroopa Study Centre is the whiz kid who owns the ability to memorise more than 1,000 words at a stretch. Go on pronouncing 1,000 words, one word followed by the other in a gap of five seconds each and write it on a board by assigning them numbers in series from 1 to 1,000 for the testing purpose. Once all the words are announced, one can pick which ever word from the list one wishes to and this whiz girl surprises you by telling the exact number assigned to the word and vice versa.
She further makes you drop your jaw out by recalling all the words in the list in the perfect series from 1 to 1,000 and 1,000 to 1 with all easiness. When asked about the secret behind her memory technique, she said that imaginary technique taught to her by her teacher Gopadkar one and a half years back has helped her to develop her memory to a great extent. “I was like any other child when I was in High School. Once I joined Swaroopa and became a part of its informal education, there emerged a feeling in me to be different and achieve things in life. Meanwhile, my mentors Gopadkar and Sumadkar taught me the memory skills which interested me and so I imbibed them in my routine life,” says Akshatha who is pursuing her PUC through correspondence course.
For Akshatha to memorise 1,000 words is not a big deal as she believes one can memorise as many words or numbers one wants once they are comfortable with the memory technique. “Earlier, I used to wonder at people who could memorise 50 words and were receiving applauds from the public for their achievement, but as I started practicing the memory technique, I found memorising as easy as any other work,” she affirms.
Akshatha has already attracted the attention of the public state-wide through her memory technique demonstrations and is quite popular among the school students too. It is not only the words she plays with, but also the numbers. In fact, more than 200 phone numbers are already registered in Akshatha’s memory.
Versatile talent
The whiz girl’s talent is not just limited to the exceptional memory power, but Akshatha is a very good mimic and singer too. Though she practiced mimicking two years back, she can mimic 85 voices now.
“Whenever I hear any interesting voice in the surrounding environment, I try to imitate it and that is how I have developed the mimicking skill,” says Akshatha who has staged mimic programmes in all the districts of Karnataka except Haveri and Koppal.
Teacher speaks
Speaking to City Herald, her mentor and the founder of Swaroopa Study Centre in Kodilabail, Gopadkar said that any child with proper training can develop memory techniques like Akshatha. “All it requires is the interest to learn from the side of children and support from the parents,” he said. Meanwhile, he said that efforts to add Akshatha’s name in the world record was not just to bring name and fame to the girl, but to make people aware that adopting memory techniques is not an impossible task.
“We have applied for Guinness World Records as well as Limca Book of Records. As 65,000 and odd applications are pending in Guinness World Records, we have decided to move on with Limca first,” he said.
