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Bringing laurels to his nation, an Indian-origin Singaporean boy has won two gold medals at the Memory Championship was held in Hong Kong.
Dhruv Manoj won prizes in the ‘names and faces’ and ‘random words’ categories defeating 56 fellow contestants in the competition.
He has an incredible ability to commit to memory more than seven decks of shuffled cards in an hour; 1,155 binary numbers in half that time; and 87 names and faces in mere 15 minutes.
To be able to achieve this, Dhruv has mastered the Roman memory technique of creating ‘memory places’, which requires associating ideas or objects to be memorised with scenes imagined at familiar locations, such as one’s residence.
Having just passed primary school, Dhruv is a computer prodigy, a sprinter for his school tracks and a head prefect.
He started preparing for the competition by squeezing in two to three hours of practice a week before the vital Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE).
He only began rigorous learning in October, memorising binary numbers and cards for about four to six hours a day.
“The toughest part was concentrating on what I have to do, because for most of my friends, PSLE just ended…For me, sitting down there and practising… it was hard, but I managed to pull through.”
When asked if he supports his child, Dhruv’s father Manoj Prabhakar, who is a management consultant in the oil and gas industry, said, “I found that Dhruv enjoyed doing it and he’s doing pretty well, so I thought I should support him