Nearly six decades ago, a professor in a Walt Disney comedy bequeathed immortality to a mental failing that has been a recurring cause of red faces.
The professor was bright and brainy but so single-mindedly focused on high matters of science that he could never remember the more mundane “asides” of life — including his forthcoming wedding. The Absent-Minded Professor may have been a laugh riot, but absent-mindedness is no laughing matter.
At work, if you misplace a file or stand up to make a presentation only to realise that your notes are in the drawer at home, you will be deemed slack and clearly unfit for what HR departments describe as “higher responsibilities”.
Present day society with its fetish about practical efficiency does not readily forgive us — the serial forgetters. Word goes around that our memory has more holes than a mosquito net. The extended family will then stand on the sidelines and snigger while the spouse, out of wifely concern, suggests consulting the friendly, neighbourhood neurologist, just in case it’s an early warning sign of dementia. Relax, it’s nothing of the sort.
Listen to the experts. George Grossberg, Director of Geriatric Psychology at the St. Louis University School of Medicine, says: “Someone who misplaces his keys, gets frustrated, and runs around looking for them is (just) absent-minded. On the other hand, a person who misplaces his/her keys, doesn’t know that they are lost, and after they are found, forgets what they are for, that’s cause for concern.” If you haven’t gone that far, you are in safe territory. We of the forgetful fraternity also have historian-cum-philosopher Yuval Noah Harari on our side. He says that the human mind is not designed to “think like a filing cabinet”. A normal mind does not move like a regiment on parade. Rather, like a Jaspreet Bumrah run-up, our line of thought hops, stops, and pops as memory surrenders to our poet-like imagination.
There are many ways of polishing a rusty memory. These range from regular meditation to de-clutter your top storey to eating brain food like almonds every morning. If you tend to forget the names of people you have met, you are told to repeat the name under your breath till your mind has got it pat. More discretion is advised. Suppose you are repeating ‘Rooprani’, make sure your wife is not within earshot.
If none of this works, do not despair. Not everything in this world is of lasting significance. Why carry around the burden of unpleasant remembrances or the overhang of guilt? As Khalil Gibran said: “Forgetfulness is a form of freedom.”
jairam.menon@gmail.com
