I usually have a lousy memory when it comes to the necessary facts of daily life: road directions, shop locations, names and telephone numbers. My memory banks do however welcome bits of useless data like they were long-lost twins, hence explaining why I know Pankaj Kapur was the voice for Ben Kingsley in the Hindi dubbing of Gandhi: very interesting (if you wanted connections, Kapur's brother-in-law is Naseeruddin Shah who desperately wanted to play Gandhi in Attenborough's version, and had to content himself with doing so on stage and on screen in Hey Ram!) but as you can see, not likely to be very important when I am on Lakshmi Road wondering which street takes me where I want to go.

Though I found that I remember some phone numbers better than others especially when I'm staring intently at the dial-pad. Turns out I've memorised a visual pattern made by the sequence of numbers that I recall. For example, pressing 6542580 on my phone recalls the symbol for '4' with an elongated leg. Or even an arrow if put this way:

1  2  3
4  5  6
7  8  9
*  0  #

So now it's a question of remembering the right visual clue for each phone number. Hmm... Perhaps it's easier to remember the fact that it was English footballer Gary Linekar who played an exhibition cricket match for the MCC versus Germany, was out for one, and remarked "I always score 1 against the Germans".