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regularly.
Association means linking what you want to remember with something you already know.
    In fact, our brain always stores information in the form of associations or connections. Whenever a stimulus comes from outside, it recalls the connection. For example , you are thinking about your school friend. Immediately, you will be reminded of many things associated with your friend like the time you spent together, your school, classroom, class teacher, etc. Similarly, when we think about a bird, along with it we are reminded of nest, eggs, sky, and tree.
    Can you think of any one thing to which no other information is related? According to scientists this is impossible since our brain can memorize information only in pairs. For example, if someone asks you to memorize a random date like 18 th February, 1985, it is illogical for us to memorize it. When this date gets associated with the name of any person or event, we can then memorize it. This is because our brain memorizes only connections and for connecting, we need two elements of information.
    Given below are some examples from a simple word association game that children often play for amusement:
     
Call word   
Response   
Chair   
Table   
Son   
Father   
Examination   
Study   
Dark   
Light   
Black   
White   
Rain   
Water   
    Thus we find that we instantly recall something after having read a particular word, although we may not have thought about that thing for months. You can easily find an association or relation between the given word and the respective answer.
     
Now try it for yourself. Write down what comes to your mind immediately after reading the following words:
Sachin Tendulkar _______
Books ________________
Pen __________________
Window _______________
Cup __________________
Party _________________
    Association simply means that when one word or idea is presented, another word or idea, with which the first word is connected, is recalled.
    Try to recall the list of 15 words you memorized in the beginning of this chapter, starting from Ant, and write all of them in the space given below:
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    I am sure you have successfully recalled nearly all of them in the same sequence.
    Now let’s play a little trick!
    Try to recall and write what was after elephant:________
Now check if you can correctly tell what was before elephant:________
Write what is after dragon:________
    Once you have written your answers, refer to the list and check. I am sure all your answers are correct.
    Whether I ask you something from the middle of the list or from the end, you are able to answer it so fast because when I ask elephant, it is linked to paintbrush in the forward order and is associated with mobile in the reverse order. The moment I give you one information, the other one connected to it is recalled automatically without any effort of going into the sequence of the whole list.
A SSOCIATIONS ARE LIKE P EARLS IN A N ECKLACE
If I have a fist full of pearls and I put them on a table, chances are that they will get scattered here and there. Some of them might roll down the edge of the table and disappear. Some might remain on the table, constantly changing their position. After five minutes, it would be difficult for me to collect all of them in my hand. But if I put all these pearls in a string and tie a knot and place it on the table, all the pearls will remain in the same place, making it easy for me to pick them up, wear them, use them, and place them back in my drawer without losing any of the pearls.
Associating information with each other is quite similar to putting pearls in a string. Initially, when I asked you to memorize the list, most of you might have been able to recall the first 2–3 words or the last few ones, but not the ones in the middle. That’s because all words were scattered in the memory like pearls on a table. But through