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If we had not good memories, the institution of the family could not survive in any great modern city.

The poet forgets the letters kept in his pocket. Whenever the friend enquires about the unposted letters, it embarrasses him. Then he is forced to produce the evidence of his guilt (i.e.,) the unposted letters. This awkward humiliation is said to be unadventurous.

Psychologists believe that humans forget what they don’t want to remember, like taking pills.

Team A : We think it is a result of carelessness. If we really attach great importance to details, we will never forget.

Team B : Perhaps, things you are interested in, you don’t tend to forget.

Team C : We think forgetting is mostly by preoccupation with something. Brain can do , multitasking but not always. If your mind is focussed on a serious problem and ways of solving it, the brain shuts down all other memory files for a while. It is purely a temporary issue.

Team A&B : Yes, we agree;with team‘C’.

The commonest form of forgetfulness occurs in the matter of posting letters.

Commonest type of forgetfulness occurs in the matters of posting letters. The author himself has forgotten to post his own letters many times.

Our memories are filled with names of cricketers footballers, murderers,. actors and actresses. Our memories are filled with many routine activities.

Most of us, I fear, are born with prosaically efficient memories.

The commonest form of forgetfulness is that people forget to post the letters.

Forgetting is deemed by many people leading prosaic lives as a mistake or an inefficiency of mind. But in reality, forgetfulness is freedom. Osho is right in his opinion of forgetfulness. In fact, it liberates painful memories and unpleasant things. We need to “let go” painful memories of the past and be free to aspire for better things in life. Robert Frost in his poem, “Let go” talks about mediocre person’s inability to let go things that hurt them. The capacity to forget hurtful memories is a real blessing.

If human mind does not have the capacity to forget, life would be miserable for every one of us. Human mind is such a wonderful machine that it retains what is most important for personal or professional growth and allows the other things to slip away from the bank of memory. But young ones should remember to remember important assignments, deadlines for submission of homework, examination time-tables and hall tickets before leaving for examination.

To assist memory we can have a checklist before leaving for the school. It is often said, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” So, my dear friends, I appeal to you to love whatever work you do. The brain retains in memory whatever you do with great passion, love and involvement. For a successful life, a strong memory is indispensable. So, cultivate a strong memory.

However, I appeal to you to forget failures, betrayals and hurts to grow into a happy and healthy person.

“Sometimes we survive by forgetting.”

I dare not carry an umbrella for fear of losing it.

Considerable number of footballs and cricket bats were forgotten by young sportsmen. Serious – minded ordinary citizens forget less. The author Lynd infers that the sportsmen’s forgetfulness is justified as their minds are full of vision of the playing field. Their heads are in the stars and among the clouds. Keeping their hearts in boots, young sportsmen rush home to talk about their exploits and are naturally more absentminded than serious- minded ordinary folks.

Robert Lynd is amazed by the efficiency of human memory. Modem man remembers telephone numbers, names of film stars, cricketers, football champions and even notorious murderers. He remarks with jest that man does not forget a single item of his clothing. No one forgets to shut the door when leaving the house. The institution of family survives in modem cities because ordinary people have efficient memory power. In the ordinary life, man remembers almost everything he is expected to remember like birthdays and Valentine’s day. He remembers appointments for dinner and lunch. He remembers what the weather was in a . long-part August. Not even one in thousand forgets, simple things like switching off lights before going upstairs or a single item of dressing. Almost everybody remembers to do the right things of the right moment till it is time to go to bed.

Taking medicines should be one of the easiest actions to remember because doctor has prescribed the medicine to recover from illness. Besides, there is a need to take it either before or after meals. Everytime one takes meals, one should easily remember medicine.

The commonest form of forgetfulness is that people forget to post the letters.

Modern people do not forget telephone numbers and addresses of their friends, appointments for lunch and dinner, names of actors and actresses, etc.

12, Dhandapani Street, 

T. Nagar 

13.07.2018.

Dear Madhan / Seema,

I’m. fine. I hope this letter finds you in the best of your health. I’m penning this letter to express my profound sorrow for forgetting to bring your branded cricket bat. I have left it behind in the hotel room in Mumbai. I’m terribly sorry. I was late for the train to Chennai. As I rushed to the station, I just forgot the packed bat. I rang up the hotel. I am told that the bat is safe. Next week, my cousin is coming home. I have asked him to bring it from the hotel. Kindly bear with me. Please do forgive my mistake. I shall certainly return your bat in a fortnight.

With deep regrets

Yours loving friend 

Arun / Vanitha

To 

K. Madhan 

S/0 Krishna 

17, Valluvar St, 

Urappakam

(b) delinquent

(c) telephone

Efficiency not inefficiency of human memory is more surprising. I know it by seeing the people doing their daily works without forgetting them.

I can remember anything and everything except books and walking sticks.

The sportsmen are lost in their imaginations of the sports ground but ordinary people are serious minded men. So, the memory of sportsmen is worse than that of ordinary people.

(d) considerable

A man, they say, who is a perfect  remembering machine is seldom a man of the first intelligence.

(c) fishing rods

Memory indeed is half the substance of the musician’s art.

The fishing rod of reality is forgotten as he daydreams over the feats of the fishing rod of Utopia.

Context: In this essay the writer deals with the habit of forgetting. He describes its all aspects in detail. Here he compares the habit of forgetting of a fisherman and a poet and concludes the reason of forgetting. 

Explanation : In this passage the writer says that a fisherman forgets his fishing rod which is most important for him and he uses it whole of the day. But when he returns home, he is lost in his daydreaming and has no care of his fishing rod. According to the writer the fisherman’s loss of memory is really a tribute because he is lost in the enjoyment of his sport and for him the enjoyment is greater than the fishing rod. Same thing applies to the poet who forgets to post the letter. Both of them forget the things which are ordinary to them while their minds are full of more glorious matters.

Reference:These lines have been taken from the lesson ‘Forgetting’ written by Robert Lynd. 

[ N.B. : The above reference will be used for all the explanations of this lesson. ] 

Context: In this essay the writer deals with the habit of forgetting, keeping in view all of its aspects. He refers to the list of articles lost by railway passengers and comes to the conclusion that absent mindedness is very common. 

Explanation : In these lines the writer describes the opinion of some of the psychologists about forgetting. The psychologists take the case of taking medicine at the right time. The doctor prescribes medicines to be taken before, during or after meals. Thus, the time of meal itself reminds the person to take the medicine. Even then the people generally forget it. In fact we remember to take the medicine at the right time till we are sick because our interest is in the recovery of health. As soon as we improve our health, our interest in taking medicines becomes less. So, we start forgetting to take the medicine at right time. So, it shows that forgetfulness is the result of lack of our interest. That is why the writer says that we forget things because we want to forget them.

Context: In this essay the writer deals with the habit of forgetting. He describes its all aspects in detail. Here, he is discussing the most common example of forgetting which is about posting of letters. 

Explanation : The writer says that forgetting is very common among all types of people. The posting of letters is its most important example because a large percentage of people forget to post the letters. The writer also has experienced that even his visitors forget to post his important letters. So, he does not believe in them. If sometimes he hands over them his important letters, he asks them to take an oath that they will not forget to post them.

Context: In this essay the writer deals with the habit of forgetting. He describes its all aspects in detail. Here in this paragraph he describes different types of people and compares which of them forget their things more. 

Explanation: The writer says that the habit of forgetting things is very harmful. Due to this habit some of us forget much of their property during their travel. Generally there are two categories of people. In the first category there are ordinary people who do not forget their articles during their journey and arrive their destination safe with all their goods. In the second category there are young people and sportsmen who have worst memories and forget even their most important things during their journey, because they are lost in their imaginations.

Once a father took his baby out in a perambulator in the morning. He walked into a pub to have a glass of beer. The child was sitting in the perambulator outside in the street. After sometime his wife came that way for shopping. She was shocked to find her baby sleeping in the perambulator. She decided to teach him a lesson. She took the’baby home. She expected her husband to come and apologize for losing the child. But he just walked in and casually asked his wife cheerfully what was there for lunch. Very few people like Einstein or Socrates would be capable of such absent-mindedness.

One day a father took his baby out in a perambulator. He stopped at a bar to drink, leaving the child in perambulator outside the bar. A little later his wife passed by that way and saw her baby sleeping in the perambulator. She took the baby home to teach a lesson to her husband.

The writer’s opinion about absent-mindedness is that ordinary people are not habitual of forgetting because they are serious. Mostly they reach their home with all articles safe. The people like sportsmen, anglers, etc., generally forget, their articles because they become more interested in their imaginations than their articles.