The wierd and wonderful world of traumatic memory

Memory is an amazing tool.  Subject to human frailty, absolutely, but sometimes astounding in it's power.

That my mother was able to recall minute details of her life 60 years after the fact is truly incredible. 

Her atypical power of recall can be explained by the unique circumstances of how she trained herself to retain these details at a young age, and also by the way traumatic "amnesia" freezes memories, locks them away, keeping them largely intact if inaccessible. 

Finally, the events of my mother's manuscript take place against the backdrop of an India that was unlike any place my mother lived again, and which was to disappear quickly after Indian Independence a few years later, and this contrast helped to freeze certain details in my mother's mind.

As I read and edit the manuscript, I am constantly getting glimpses into how the mind works.  Tomorrow, an excerpt from The Drumming, my mother's own words on the subject.