SPEED READING -- CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL

Couple of years ago, my stainless steel tanker was chartered by the world's No 1 oil major ( no names ).

The ship used to discharge Gasoline , Jet fuel and Diesel at several ports of an Island country.

I was due to hand over command, and I felt that 2 of the minor ports ( where I had discharged twice ) were unsafe for my ship -- so i made a iron clad risk assessment using my own format and declared the ports as unsafe , as the ship was too large --an absolute NO GO--NYET !!

As soon as I sent this,  the charterers were forced to act,  and one of these ports was skipped.

There was immediate hue and cry as the whole area was starved of fuel.  There were huge write ups in the local newspapers, and I was the bad guy.

At the next port, I was told to go ashore and meet the owner of the Charterer's agency--an European. As I stepped into his office , I could see from his body language that he was pretending to read something. I sat on a chair and patiently waited , sensing the hostility.

Pretty soon, he asked me to take a chair at his desk, no shake hands, no usual protocol courtesies.

He gave me a newspaper and told that my ship and I , occupied the front page, with almost all the big shots and ministers commenting on the crisis, caused by the Captain of the ship, not playing ball--and how the unsafe port was indeed very safe etc.

I read the article and gave it back to him.

He said " WHAAA-- captain, you have not even read what i told you to !. Reading this entire thing will take at least 10 times more time than you took.  Probably they are right in saying, that you have an attitude problem? "

I said " Well, I have read it, and if you feel I have not read it , you can ask me questions based on the article!"

He immediately ask me a few questions.

And he was amazed that I could answer all of it. After he had finished I said " Now you can ask me about the other headlines on the same page-- choose your pick!"

This man suddenly turned from foe to friend. He jumped up and wanted to shake my hand and hug me .

He said that he has never seen anything like this before--and then he insisted that he wants to have a drink with me and dinner too.

We became good friends over dinner, and he had several intelligent questions to ask me about speed reading , as well as some advise on some personal matters.

Now I have to digress. 


Once i told my second engineer , (who wanted to know how my memory is so sharp ), that I see words as pictures. 


He immediately cried " I have named my new born son, Tamil Selvan. What picture do you see?".


I said " Imagine a deer is taking a crap-- when the last ounce of s#it is poppin' out of its a$$hole-- imagine you smear this gooey mass with your thumb, all over the orifice. Well that is word Tamil Selvan in my minds eye !"


Needless to say, though I told him the truth, I lost one of my ardent fans, on the spot.

Once at a Chemical course, the lecturer made the students read the IBC code paras , one by one. And then the stupid man would ask " Understood?"


I jumped up and said " Well all have understood except the reader, for he was more concerned about his verbal pronunciation.  If you don't believe me ask any reader , about what he read!"

Well back to business--

SPEED READERS DRINK INFORMATION THROUGH THE EYES--PERIOD!

It is a mysterious right brain lobe ( for right handers ) powered , eye and mind method.--where the eye is the gate to the mind.

Mouth and ears are out castes.

It is important to be comfortable with the font . The letter size should NOT be in capitals ( upper case ).

You yourself can try to read a page on small case, and then convert it to large size upper case, and see how your brain rejects the information.

In speed reading the eyes directed by the mind, does not give importance to 60% of the words. The mind directs the eyes to the key words and then later the mind fills up the blanks itself.

A little bit of peripheral vision is also involved. Like when you drive a car in a busy street , the subconscious mind registers what the eye does not-- and you are safe. You don't knock down the motorcycles in total chaos around you.

While speed reading, your eyes move steadily, like a train on a track, never going in reverse.

The mind does not care for the words. It gulps in passages. The mind set is such, that you are NOT afraid of missing out anything.

There is a holographic Gamma wave synthesis inside the brain. You are in a new dimension of consciousness--where you mind is totally in the present. EEG will register >40 Hertz.

In this quantum act, there is hardly any trade off between speed and comprehension like the classical quality / quantity lever on a fulcrum.

The mind sees the multitude of words as ore, it just sucks in the gold.

Try it!

Surprised?

CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL
..