SINGAPORE — In an age where forgotten facts can be Googled with a few taps on one’s mobile phone, 12-year-old Dhruv Manoj stands out for his stupendous memory.

At the World Memory Championships held in Hong Kong this month, he emerged with two golds in the “names and faces” and “random words” disciplines, beating out 56 other contestants in the kids category. 

The Sembawang Primary student memorised more than seven decks of shuffled cards in an hour, 1,155 binary numbers in half that time, and 87 names and faces in 15 minutes.

He was the only Singaporean in this year’s competition, which saw over 260 contestants from China, Russia, India, Taiwan and Malaysia.

Dhruv dived into memory sport three years ago after coming across a newspaper advertisement of the Singapore Memory Championships.

He decided to join “just for the fun of it”, but ended up winning gold in three disciplines – historic dates, names and faces, and random words.

He caught the eye of some memory coaches and went on to participate in the World Memory Championships that year, which was held in Singapore.

Lest anyone think that individuals with a good memory are simply born with the talent, Dhruv said training for competitions is “just like a marathon”.

“If you don’t have the proper training, you’ll never make it,” he said.

Fainting is a common occurrence at the world championships and while Dhruv said it has never happened to him, headaches are common.

“During long events especially, because you’re literally cramming all the information in your head, it’s always difficult to just focus when you’re already at that stage,” he said.

He has mastered the Roman memory technique of creating “memory palaces”, which works by associating the ideas or objects to be memorised with scenes imagined at familiar locations, such as one’s house.

To remember a deck of cards, for instance, Dhruv creates a “memory palace” in his school. He imagines a seven of spades as a goose playing on the piano, the three of diamonds as fishes flying in the air near the school pond, and the king of hearts as the American comedian Kevin Hart laughing hysterically while coming out from the general office.

Training for this year’s competition was tougher because he also had to study for his Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE).

Dhruv said he would squeeze in two to three hours of practice a week before the exams and only began intensive training in October. He would practise memorising binary numbers and cards, among other drills, 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,” said Dhruv, who was also head prefect, a sprinter in the track and field team and a member of the computer club.

12-year-old Dhruv Manoj memorised more than seven decks of shuffled cards in an hour, 1,155 binary numbers in half that time, and 87 names and faces in 15 minutes at the World Memory Championships 2018 in Hong Kong. Photo: Najeer Yusof/TODAY

At the competition, a last-minute reshuffle of the schedule caught him off-guard. It was supposed to kick off with his pet event of remembering faces and names, but started with random numbers instead.

“I was nervous, it kind of got to me and paralysed me. I was quite slow at the start and picked up the pace eventually,” he said.

His father, Dr Manoj Prabhakar, 46, funds his hobby and, since last year, has been his coach.

A management consultant in the oil and gas industry, Dr Manoj forks out about S$3,000 to S$4,000 a year on travel expenses and participation fees, which usually ranges between S$100 to S$200.

“I found that he enjoyed doing it and he’s doing pretty well, so I thought I should support him,” said Dr Manoj, who has a younger son aged seven.

To help Dhruv destress after a long day of competition, he takes his son out for a walk to clear his mind, for a nice meal or simply changes the conversation topic.

They have yet to decide if Dhruv will compete in next year’s world championships in Wuhan, China, as the boy will be enrolling in a new school, Raffles Institution, next year.

Dhruv hopes to join track and field in secondary school and continue training in memory sport on the side.

Asked if it has helped in his daily life, he said he has seen his grades improve significantly. He can better remember scientific facts, narratives in composition writing as well as Chinese characters for his Mandarin lessons.

What about phone numbers? Dhruv said he does not have many to remember for now.

On memory sport, he said: “I really love it, honestly. I love the atmosphere of competition. It’s quiet, so tense… it’s something like adrenaline, it doesn’t get you hyper but it sets your mind into such a mood.”