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17 May 2008
The New Paper
Do you
know what his super ability is?
Hint: It is like an elephant's
CAN you memorise 11011010100010101100110 0010111001010101?
And then say it backwards without looking at it again?
Mr Nishant Kasibhatla (right), 30, can.
In fact, he holds the Limca World Record, the Indian equivalent of the
Guinness
World Record, for memorising the longest binary number and recalling it
in the reverse order –
a feat he achieved 10 years ago.
The number had 400 digits of either 0 or 1.
In a display of his mental prowess, Mr Nishant, who is formerly a
trainer and speaker
in India and is now based in Singapore, memorised a 30-digit number
after just hearing
it read out once during his workshop on Human Resources Day last
Thursday.
And that wasn’t his only feat. The memory expert even recited the number
backwards, and
was also able to remember the 21st digit of that number.
FAMOUS
Speaking to The New Paper after his
workshop on memory techniques, which was
organised by the Singapore Human Resources
Institute, Mr Nishant said: “I started liking the
attention that I got from people, and I thought
that this would be a good tool for me to get
noticed and get famous.
“Everyone knew who I was in college. If I
didn’t have this skill, I’d just be a normal guy.”
Mr Nishant’s passion for memory skills was
first instilled by his 54-year-old father, who had
coached him and his younger brother in
memory techniques.
He got so good at it that by 17, Mr Nishant
started conducting memory training courses
while he was still in college.
He also started memorising 25-digit
numbers. Soon, he was able to memorise
50-digit numbers.
But one day, a friend showed him the Limca
Book of Records and told him that someone
held the record for memorising a 1,040-digit
number.
Two years later, in 1998, Mr Nishant took
part in the Indian National Memory
Championships, and set the new record by
memorising a 1944-digit number.
His memory courses also started bringing in
money. Mr Nishant said: “In 1996 (he was 18), I
was earning about 20,000 rupees, the same as
top-level executives in India.
“It translates to about $800 (in Singapore
currency) today, but it’s a lot of money in India, and it was a lot of
money in those days.”
Now, each time he conducts a training programme, he charges $4,000 to
$6,000 a day.
This has been such a lucrative job, it is the only one he has held.
Despite his accomplishments, there are some who doubt his ability.
During his two-hour workshop here, he recalled an incident when he met a
man who had run out of namecards.
Although Mr Nishant had assured him that
he was able to remember his handphone
number, the latter kept insisting that he write
his number down.
“We argued for two minutes, then this guy
runs off, finds a piece of paper, and forcibly
puts it into my hand!” said Mr Nishant,
laughing.
Explaining why he has not considered a
career change even after 13 years, he said: “I
really want to make a difference to the way
people think about their memory.”
HAPPY STUDENT
Earlier, a 54-year-old man had come up to
him and told him how happy he was to have
been able to memorise a list of 25 words after
being taken through an exercise during the
workshop.
Mr Nishant said: “That made my day. It
gives you the high that you need to continue.”
While Mr Nishant conducts workshops in
Singapore, his father and younger brother, 28,
help to run training programmes in India and
Malaysia. His father lives in India while his
brother lives in Malaysia.
But even his elephant’s memory fails him at
times. He said: “I’ve got a phenomenal
memory, but I’m also a human being.
“Sometimes, I get a one-second introduction
to someone. I meet this person again after 10
days. I usually remember their names. But if I
can’t, I’ll just tell them.”
“People expect me to remember them
because I’m a memory expert. It’s pressurising,
but if I cannot remember their names, I won’t
fake it.”
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