mumbai memory guru tony buzan is a man of many parts a martial arts black belt a chess player and an olympicslevel rowing coach but his chief hobby is the human brain every child is born brilliant but the intelligence is crushed out of the child at an early stage buzan said to a packed hall on saturday the brain is stamped on and pesticided with rigid school rules and negative remarks if youre not good at say maths or science you are called dumb but the questions we need to ask are who has the right to tell you that your intelligence is average and what kind of impact does that kind of message have on the childs future citing an example of the rigidity afflicting schoolrooms around the world buzan said in every country he has visited children take notes in blue or black ink and are not encouraged to use different coloured ink one colour is called a monotone which is monotonous he said when things get monotonous they get boring and when things get really boring the brain switches off or shuts down one of buzans solutions to this kind of standardized linear learning is the mind map a concept he has helped popularise around the world the mind map is a visual tool that helps develop memory and enhance creative thinking he describes it as an external representation of the way the brain thinks since the brain thinks in a radial way the centre of the map consists of the main idea from which lines of subideas radiate like curved branches when the map is completed it looks like the neural pathways of the brain using mind maps releases the creativity within us says buzan according to the brain whisperer mind maps have been used by geniuses like leonardo da vinci and beethoven today the community of mindmappers includes millions of people from children in singapore and japan to al gore and bill gates asked about the effect of outsourcing memory to new technologies such as smartphones and the internet buzan said technology can be harmful it can fragment it can fracture it can digitalize your thinking digital thinking is not the way the brain thinksit is more organic so it can wreck your thinking but he added if one marries the two that will be helpful