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Behind the Scene

From Bogra
The Man with an Amazing Memory

Hasibur Rahman Bilu

Not just hundreds, not even ten or twenty thousands, but at least ninety thousand telephone numbers are memorised by motor mechanic Abdur Razzak. Popularly known as Vickel Razzak, Abdur Razzak knows 82,000 cell and 8,000 land phone numbers by heart. Son of late Hasan Aliof Malgram, Bogra, Razzak has had a very good memory since his childhood. However, he didn't do very well in his S.S.C or H.S.C examinations and was placed in the second division in both. He had got admission in a college, but when after a few months his father died, he had to discontinue his studies because of financial restrains. He then had to take a job in a motor workshop.

Razzak is now fifty-two years old, and he claims that he has an extraordinary power to remember limitless telephone numbers.

Razzak is now fifty-two years old, and he claims that he has an extraordinary power to remember limitless telephone numbers. However, his aim is to remember five lakh telephone numbers by heart.First of all, he wants to memorise the phone numbers of one lakh VIPs and high officials in the administration. Razzak tells us that, because of his job as a motor mechanic, he often had to go to the office of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA). The very first cell phone number that he memorised was that of Mr. Nuruzzaman, an Inspector of motor vehicles, and the number was 01711 801 479. He claims that the phone number he once memorises can never be erased from his memory.

Razzak says, “If any one calls me at my personal cell phone number 01711 570 435, and asks for a phone number, I can immediately give the number from my memory. The caller only needs to give me the name and the profession of the person whose number is requested.” He explains, “It's important to know the profession because there can be more than one person by the same name. I have to be absolutely sure about whose number the caller wants.

I must not give him or her a wrong number.”
Razzak has made a request to the important persons of the country to give him their phone numbers not just for the benifit of the general public, but also for the interest of the country since he can keep these in his memory and give them to others in time of an emergency.

Razzak further claims that of the six hundred buses and mini-buses that ply on the roads from Bogra to other parts of the country he knows the numbers along with the names of the owners by heart. He laughs and then says, “I also know the home addresses of many of the bus owners.” At this point, Razzak's son quips in, “Although my memory is not bad, it's far from being as extraordinary as my father's memory.” Razzak then adds to his son's comments, “But my sister Hosne Ara had an extraordinary memory. She got first divisions in both her SSC and HSC exams. My father died in 1988, and eight years after that, in 1996 my sister died.”

Second among the seven children of late Hasan Ali, Razzak says that he could work in the information department of any mobile phone company of the country. The Telephone and Telegraph department has seventeen such enquiry departments. Abdur Razzak says, “I can provide the land or mobile phone number of any body at any time from any district across the country, provided, I hear the number at least once beforehand.”