Do you Remember?

 A few days ago, my daughter asked me the order of the nine (oops eight!) planets. I was able to tell it in a jiffy with no confusions in the order. How? Well, I should thank my very educated mother. 😜 When I was young, my mom taught me this- 'My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets". The first letter of each word is the first letter of the planets in order. Yeah back then, poor Pluto was still a planet and planetary science had not yet kicked it out from the elite planet status. Anyway, it made it so easy to remember.

Here's another one from memory. 11th grade Physics class. The lesson of the day was Ohm's Law. The teacher suggested a simple method to remember the equation. V=IR. IR (Iyer-a caste in India) are predominantly V (Vegetarians). Laws may come and go, but this is one law that I am taking to my grave. 😉

One more- I credit myself for this one. 😛😛 The blood group types that are universal donors and recipients. While I absolutely love the details behind how they are termed as donors or recipients, I had my shortcut to remember them for "quick access". DOnOr is always 'O'. 

Several years ago I was watching actor Aravinth Saamy's episode of Neengalum Vellalam Oru Kodi (Tamil version of Kaun Banega Crorepathi or Who wants to be a millionaire). He had demonstrated one such memory trick. When any list of words was presented to him, he could take a look and after a few minutes tell the word accurately when the number was called out. It was very kind of him to have shared the trick behind it, on the show. 

• Step 1, In his mind he associated each number with a picture, permanently. For example, #1 is bee. 
• Step 2: Whenever a word list was shared to him, he connected the word and the picture. For example if the list had #1.Laptop, he would imagine a bee sitting on the laptop. 
• Step 3: When he is asked the item on No.1, he effortlessly recollects and declares the word as laptop.

Isn't that so simple, yet awesome?

All my life I have used such mnemonics and shortcuts to remember things better. So, what are your secret shortcuts? 😁 Would love to hear!

Image: Schoolplus.com