"Ghissu" - the compulsive memorizer!

Back then, when you said someone was “studious”, he matched a particular profile.  He was a veritable bookworm with the capacity to memorize entire textbooks. For hours, he paced the terrace from end to end like a tiger in a cage, reading his lessons aloud. Give him any subject- English, History or Biology, he “mugged-up" the book from cover to cover, inclusive of the table of contents and the appendix! “The heart has 4 chambers. The heart has 4 chambers, 2 auricles and 2 ventricles. The heart has 4 chambers”, he repeated ad nauseum. He educated the coconut trees in the neighborhood and even the passerby, who filled in for any lull in the recitation with apt answers- “2 auricles and 2 ventricles”!

When it came to Mathematics, he knew both the questions and the answers “by-heart”.  “Rama lent 4 mangoes, Rama lent 4 mangoes to Krishna. Rama lent…” he babbled on and on. In the exam, he was aware of the answer even before he started solving the problem! If he got a different answer, he could immediately back-track and correct the mistake! So thorough was his preparation. In North India, this peculiar species was termed a “ghissu”, one who literally scrubbed textbooks and made the contents his own!

The ghissu cracked all exams. After all, the whole book was in his head. If at all he had a problem, it was a unique one- to answer a question on the Battle of Panipat, he had to begin the recitation from Mohenjo Daro. He required that flow to get to the point!

Relatives and visitors kept a safe distance from the ghissu’s home. The home resembled a railway station with a vendor shouting himself hoarse. Normal conversation was simply impossible and got tangled with auricles and ventricles all the time.

To make matters worse, the ghissu’s sibling was often another ghissu! They had to be caged in separate rooms. Crosstalk was unavoidable. While one studied Biology, the other was shouting herself hoarse on the Zilla Parishad. Each one raised the decibel level to outshout the other. The result was total commotion. Occasionally, the ghissu-siblings emerged from the quarantine to the common living room area. Like canines with exclusive territorial claims, they snarled angrily, each blaming the other for being too noisy.

Sadly, the ghissu is becoming an extinct species. Of late, there is negative propaganda by non-ghissus, heckling the ghissu of being just a “parrot” who “crammed” lessons. Today, the education mantra has changed. You must “understand” the basics and sharpen your “problem solving skills”. You must work “smart” and avoid all “donkey work”. The accusation is unfair- both to the ghissu and to the donkey!