Ras Al Khaimah: A seven-year-old Indian boy in Ras Al Khaimah has entered the ‘India Book of Records’ for the ‘fastest to identify all countries by their maps’ in just four minutes and 54 seconds.
Shreyas Arunkumar, from the southern Indian state of Kerala, achieved the feat in September after practicing for around six months, his father Arunkumar said. The grade two student of Scholars Indian School, Ras Al Khaimah, recognised 195 countries whose maps where flashed on a screen, taking only around 1.5 seconds per country, on average.
“When I was practising, I learnt the easy maps first and then tried the difficult ones. I remembered little things about them, focusing on small areas of the maps that I could remember, so that helped me. When I got the record, I was like ‘wow!’. I talked to my grandparents in India about it and also my friends here. They were so happy,” Shreyas, who likes geography, gardening and football, said.
Sharp memory
His father Arunkumar said since Shreyas’ kindergarten days, many of this teachers have commented on his sharp memory. “This inspired us to hone his passion for learning new things. On his sixth birthday, we gifted him an atlas and we noticed he was soon able to recognise the countries just by looking their maps. I had a conservation with a colleague about this and he suggested we go for the record,” he added. Shreyas wants to now try going for the ‘Asia Book of Records’ for identifying all countries by looking their maps while naming their capitals also.
“His school really helped. During the movement restrictions because of the pandemic, Shreyas and other students had to do virtual presentations on how they spent their time at home and during the summer vacation. It gave him a platform to showcase his talents,” Arunkumar added.
