In this mechanical way of fast life we simply cannot recollect from our memories about what exactly happened yesterday.

For many, they do not even remember the happenings of the previous minute (definitely I am not refering to politicians here; their selective amnesia is some thing different - well, that's an another story). Even a simple arithmetic like 2*2 looks beyond our reach that we desperately need calculators. And, forgetting things rapidly is almost the order of the day, now.

But, absolutely not to this seven year old wonder kid, our celebrity this week. Thirumalai Kumar, - a second standard school boy, son of Sundara Pandian - Santhana Mari - peasants of Vellanai Kottai, a rustic village in Tirunelveli District, is in the lime lights to day because of his exemplary memory skills. And, if we call him a 'MOBILE ENCYCLOPAEDIA'you will find out for sure, in the following lines that it's not at all an exaggeration.

Yes! He knows the answers for more than one thousand five hundred general knowledge questions. Remember, he is only 7 now.

The outstanding feature of this boy's success story is that the way he is being brought up this far by the not much educated parents, with a skimpy . m. bare minimum rather, facilities available in that far-away village.

Particularly his father has been playing a phenomenal role in his career. Surely, his father deserves a big high fives from us. Keeping things in the mind comes so naturally to him, says his dad proudly and promptly recalls an incident. Thirumalai Kumar was 2 then. One day, he was crying incessantly and all the cajoling, sweet words too were in vain. It was totally unstoppable. Suddenly, he stopped crying for his dad's promise of taking him a jolly ride in the two-wheeler, next morning. Next day, genuinely forgetting about the promise to his son, he left for nearby town for a work and returned home only late in the night. But, Thirumalai Kumar was wide awake awaiting his dad all the time, swiftly reminded his dad about his promise and got his ride.

"That was the incident which made me realize his very strong memory power and started grooming his talents in that way", says this proud father.

By 5, he was able to answer 500 questions.
By 6, he was good enough to 1000 questions.
And now at 7, he is able to answer more than 1500 questions in various subjects. Be it on sports, politics, world, general. whatever you shoot at him, he shoots back in a split second with perfect answers. Just go thro' these few samples:

Q: What's the Tamil equivalent for 10 crore?
A: Arputham [Yes, this is the answer]

Q: Who was the only American President resigned his post?
A: Richard Nixon

Q: Which is the largest library in the world?
A: Lenin library, Mascow [2 crore books]

Q: Name the only man in the world who survives by eating snakes only?
A: Yosoni Ali, Australia.

And the list goes on.