There was a poem in my Hindi textbook of class VII that I can still recite verbatim – it was about Bhojraj Bhojan ke Daas. I never needed to recite the poem ever in my life but I remember it nevertheless. Such poems, ads we haven’t seen for years all stay in the head. There is a lot we memorised – for no reason at all. So this Twitter question about the most useless things we memorised attracted many answers:
What's the most useless thing you memorized and still remember?
Those of us who watched TV in the 90s – can’t not know this one.
A catchy rhyme learned many years ago – still not forgotten.
We remember really random things from childhood – like this.
And also perhaps the phone number of that best friend or the secret crush?
This person has clearly spent a lot of time staring at a Budweiser can.
I remember ICQ was one of the first ever internet messenger services. But users had a number? I didn’t know that.
Practically anyone who has studied Shakespeare will remember this speech by Marc Anthony from the play Julius Caesar. Some of us may remember it because we mugged it up for some or other competition.
I remember a lot of this song as well – it was my first introduction to the concept of how systemic oppression works and criminalizes entire communities.
A tweet said My ex-husband’s name. This was the reaction.
Even though someone moved away, a list like this could help fall asleep.
The nonsense poem Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll appears in the novel Through the Looking Glass.
…. But not using. So much of what we memorised in school was just theoretical, without any practical application. We can remember, but we can’t use what we remember.
Some very specific things were memorised by people with some very specific interests.
In school we would boast to others that we knew the biggest word in the world and then would say this highly complicated set of syllables; something that appears in the old Mary Poppins movie.
Some of these memorised bits get outdated and hence useless – you know because they demote a planet to a dwarf planet?
The one I remember is she sells seashells on the seashore. Or the one about Betty who bought some bitter butter… I have it memorised but it is pretty useless.
Do you have something interesting you would like to share? Write to us at [email protected]
