Specially abled with numbers

Can you list out the mobile numbers of your friends without peaking into your contact list? It’s not an easy task.

Believe it or not, here is a ‘special’ guy who can identify as many as 500 phone numbers without any help.

Suresh Nayak from Puttur is a mentally challenged person by birth. Now in his 40s, Suresh can speak his mother tongue Konkani, Tulu and Kannada, but can read very few characters which he is fond of. But the extraordinary memory power of Suresh made him special.

Extraordinary memory

Younger brother of Suresh and proprietor of Sri Ram Shares Umesh Nayak says that the extraordinary talent of his brother came to light through his diary.

“He has a telephone hand diary which has more than 500 contact numbers. He has a hobby of collecting telephone numbers from past 20 years. If he likes anybody, he tells them to write their telephone number in his diary.

He never tells to write their name because he has the capacity to remember that through their telephone number,” he says with a smile. Umesh had organised a
demonstration of Suresh’s memory power recently at Puttur Sri Ram Shares office.

As many as 13 organisations and Puttur Sri Venkataramana temple administrative board members were present on the occasion. On the day, Suresh identified as many as 204 phone numbers in half an hour. Because of his extraordinary memory power, Suresh is now in the door steps to join Limca Book of Records.

“We used to hide his telephone hand diary as he would call somebody and disturb them. We never knew about his talent,” Umesh Nayak could not hide his excitement.
“He calls about 20-25 people in half an hour without the help of diary. He uses read- retain- recall technique to remember the numbers it seems,” he said.

Loved by all

Suresh Nayak is loved by all because of his way of living. He is working as an assistant with his brother Umesh in Sri Ram Shares- Way to Wealth Company daily for four hours. He can identify the voice through phone. He can do his works without the assistance of others.

Anandashrama Seva Trust Secretary K Venugopala Shenoy who knows well about Suresh says, “Suresh participates in free health awareness programmes conducted by his brother Umesh. Along with this, he has learnt to do some yogasanas.”  He reminds that Suresh Nayak has studied only third standard.

Suresh has a strong bond with Puttur Sri Laxmi Venkataramana temple.

The temple Administrator M Anantha Shenoy says, “Suresh participates in each and every activity of the temple. He likes ‘Bhajan’ very much, so he involves himself in 30 days of bhajan programme every year during Karthika Masa. He is good in ‘thala’ also.”

Doctor speaks

Speaking to City Herald, Mangalore KMC Emeritus Professor Dr U V Shenoy said that Suresh is suffering with Down syndrome. “Here the patient will be having severely retarded small brain. They can grow up to 5 feet and they suffer from heart, skin diseases, eye sight problem and diabetes and their life span is 45 to 50 years,” Shenoy said.

“Suresh is extraordinary. Though he has poor eye sight and minimum IQ (32 per cent), he has a brilliant memory power. He can remember upto 500 telephone numbers which is really great,” he said.

Umesh Nayak, the main strength of Suresh feels proud about his specially abled  brother. He requests the public to take care of humble disable children and the government to build some special homes to take care of disabled children just like old age homes.