Day: February 15, 2021

INDIA PAID TRIBUTE TO THE VALIANT MARTYRS OF PULWAMA ATTACK

It’s been two years since the Pulwama terror attack which took the lives of 40 Indian soldiers happened. The 14th of February leaves a deep sigh in the hearts of every patriotic Indian. It is one of the worst hit attacks and is remembered as a ‘ black day’ in the history of India. While paying his tributes to the Pulwama martyrs on the occasion of the second anniversary of the attack, Prime minister Narendra Modi said: “No Indian can forget this day. Two years ago, the PulwamaAttack happened. We pay homage to all the martyrs we lost in that attack. We are proud of our security forces. Their bravery will continue to inspire generations”.

The gruesome incident which shook the whole nation took place on 14th February 2019 after the security convoy of 78 buses carrying around 2500 military personnels of the Indian Army was rammed by an IED-laden vehicle while traveling from Jammu to Srinagar. Investigations have revealed that the car which rammed the convoy was driven by a 22 year old suicide bomber Adil Ahmad Dar and carried nearly 300 Kgs of explosives including 80 Kgs of RDX and ammonium nitrate. The attack which took the lives of 40 CRPF jawans was later claimed by the Pakistan based terrorist group named Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). Even though the investigation agency was able to confirm the identity of the suicide bomber through DNA samples, they are yet to trace the source of the explosives used. 

Along with the Prime Minister, many Senior officers of the various armed forces of the country also participated in the remembrance and paid tribute to the valiant heroes of the nation. “Did not Forgive, will not Forget: Salute to our brothers who made the supreme sacrifice for the nation in #PulwamaAttack. Indebted, we stand with the families of our valiant Bravehearts,” the force said in a Twitter post.

Memories- Are they real or is your brain playing tricks on you?

All of us are aware of the tricks our memory plays on us in our lives. Like the time when you spend the whole night before exam cramming information from your textbooks and when you try to remember your mind goes blank. Or when you remember the most embarrassing event that happened to you but nobody else remembers it. Some people remember the smallest things that happened in the past while the others cannot remember any of those things. Ever had an argument with a friend when they forgot your birthday, when you never fail to wish them every year. Well it’s not all their fault. Our memory is partly at fault.

The study of memory is a fascinating field and researchers have reported many new phenomena which show the dynamic nature of human memory. Here are some interesting types of memories-

False memories-

Did you know that you cannot trust all of memories? False memory is an interesting phenomenon that is induced by powerful imagination of an event that did not even take place at all. Research suggests that memory can be induced and implanted through inflation of imagination.

Flashbulb memories-

There are memories of some events that are very surprising. Such memories are very detailed, they are like a photo from a camera that are stored in our brain and you can take a look at it whenever you want. They are like images tied to a particular time, place and date.

Autobiographical memories-

These are personal memories. Kind of like our Facebook timeline, they are not evenly spread across our lives. Some periods of our lives produce more memories than others. For e.g. In early childhood especially during the first 4-5 years, we have no memories related to those years, it is also known as childhood amnesia. After that there is a dramatic increase in the frequency of the memories i.e. during the twenties. Around 30 years of age, there is a decline in certain kinds of memories.

Implicit Memories-

This is the kind of memory that a person is not aware of. It is a memory that is stored automatically. For e.g. One interesting example of implicit memory comes from typing, if someone knows typing that means they also knows the particular letters on the keyboards.

Repressed memories-

Some individuals undergo traumatic experiences. Memories of those events are hurtful, such memories are repressed into the unconscious. It is a kind of repression- painful, threatening and embarrassing memories are held out of consciousness.

Forgetfulness or loss of memories under stress and high anxiety is not uncommon.

But we can still improve our memories by using some techniques such as chunking (learning in several small chunks that are combined to form large chunks) and by deeply analyzing a particular piece of information makes it easier to remember it.