Jiya Phutela: The blindfolded Google Girl with the photographic memory

Jiya Phutela: The blindfolded Google Girl with the photographic memory

MUNISH DHIMAN  8th Nov 2014

Jiya Phutela, the Google Girl. ust like any other kid next door, Jiya Phutela watches television, cartoons and loves to go out and play whenever she gets the chance to weasel out of studying. But that's not how she bagged the coveted "Google Girl" tag. She is a child prodigy, a wonder kid, a genius maybe, all thanks to her extraordinary acumen and razor-sharp memory. Only nine years old and tremendously charismatic, Jiya is a class five student at Hallmark Public School in Panchkula. She has hogged the headlines for displaying her remarkable intelligence and abilities. We hear that she's especially brilliant at finding you during hide 'n' seek so we put her to task with a friendly round. All she needs to do is pick up on your scent and then she follows you effortlessly across a radius of 25 metres, blindfolded the whole time. She'll find you easily, and once she's close, it's difficult to even run off as she'll follow you wherever you go. Speaking about her amazing capabilities, her proud father, Vinod Phutela, says, "As time goes on, one often loses optimum use of one's brain. Jiya, on the other hand, has exceptional control over both sides of her brain, and she uses her senses effectively and efficiently." Jiya is a great example of the age-old dictum: "A genius is made, not born". Her father, who himself is a trainer and educationist, reaffirms this maxim, saying: "I believe all children are unique and talented in their own way, but you need to put in an extra effort to polish their inherent skills. Anyone can be like her or Kautilya Pandit (aka the "Google Boy"), given the requisite training and guidance." He is a great believer in the power of training — he tells us how he thinks everyone is born with similar senses, but what matters ultimately is how you empower and utilise them. Much like the average child her age would memorise nursery rhymes, Jiya has mastered chemical reactions, formulae and even the periodic table. She has a photographic memory, and can instantly memorise any set of numbers across columns and rows. In fact, as a fun little test, we wrote 30 numbers on a blackboard across five rows and six columns. She was given five minutes to look at the board and notice the positioning of each number. We began questioning her on the placement of the numbers in an engaging snakes-and-ladders format. Much to our amazement, she got every single answer correct. Another unusual talent she can boast of is her precise recollection of every single calendar date spread across a period of 200 years. She is also fond of colours and painting, and she's adept at drawing an almost-identical rendition of anything she sees, but designing dresses is something that she enjoys particularly. Her father, who conducts parenting workshops, tells us: "We nurtured her amazing potential with the help of Neuro—Linguistic Programming (NLP), that establishes a connect between neurological processes, language and behavioural patterns learnt through experience, which is essential in bringing out positive vibes among children." Jiya, with her uncanny powers, can read, write and even play chess blindfolded. She has successfully conducted multiple motivational and training sessions in various schools, colleges and universities, including IIT Roorkee. She sounds keen on pursuing a career as an NLP Practitioner; as the youngest such practitioner in the country, she has have a strong interest in NLP and wants to spread it across the country, sounding surprisingly keyed in to the subject for a nine-year-old. Then, again, Jiya, the Google Girl, is not your average nine-year-old. http://www.sunday-guardian.com/young-restless/jiya-phutela-the-blindfolded-google-girl-with-the-photographic-memory