Playing tricks

There is no count of  items I have lost as a kid and even as a college student.

My career spanning close to 40 years so far has been a mixed bag in the banking industry.

In my family and office circles, I am nick-named as the proverbial ‘absent-minded professor’ due to my horrible forgetfulness. It all began during my school days when I frequently did not carry essential items like the workbook or home assignment note or a particular text book itself. Memorising those poems and speeches and reproducing them in the class was the hardest part and many times I drew a blank. Sometimes I missed my lunch box and water bottle too.

 My class teacher was a nun. She was very kind and affectionate but was strict with regard to academics. I used to get punished frequently from a rap on knuckles to standing upon the bench  right down to being banished for a period and ultimately to the work of watering the school’s rose garden after school hours. At the end of it all, the teacher gave me toffees and candies which of course other kids did not get. I was reprimanded by my parents too as not only I forgot  to carry but also misplaced things at home only to be retrieved later at improbable places.

There is no count of  items I have lost as a kid and even as a college student. My father brought some activity based  books on enhancing memory for me to practice which of course I did not remember to do at regular intervals! Surprisingly, however, at my board exams, 10th and 12th level and later at the university exams, I could recall most of what I had learnt and at least momentarily forgetfulness deserted me.

It came back once I started working. I would forget to do on time many tasks given by my superiors  and they would be embarrassed in the presence of clients. It has also landed me in difficult situations at office as well as at home on several occasions. I could not (despite being aware of the  consequences) also remember the birthdays and anniversaries of very close friends and relatives  including those of my own family.

I have also left behind one of my baggages in a cab and one at some friend’s place before boarding the flights and remembered after I landed at the destination!  That is when I started making lists and maintaining logs. I now catalogue all the important  things  and I am fairly successful in my mission. (A bit late perhaps ?)

Some people in this world are endowed with photographic memory and remember even the minute details of the distant past and you ask me what I had for breakfast last Sunday, I  do not remember. I envy those people. But then I also convince my self that may be it is good to be forgetful at times as none of us would wish to carry long  the memories of failures, disappointments,  bereavement of kith and kin  and enmity in our lives. Don’t you agree ?