Yesterday was yet another wet Mumbai day but that didn’t stop me from attending a talk by Rujuta Diwekar ( you can read all about it here). Half way through the talk Rujuta asked the audience to stop recording her or even taking down notes but to pay attention to what she said. Yes, it’s true we Indians are obsessed with taking notes. If we visit a doctor, we take down notes; if we visit an astrologer we take down notes; if we read a book we like we take down notes – in fact almost always we take down notes. How useful is note taking? Is it really an aide memoire or is it a lazy brain’s way of learning?

I remember in class all of us kept track of what the teacher was saying while we furiously captured what she was saying – all except Mrs. Karat our Geography teacher who insisted that we just looked at her during the entire class and only wrote down what we remembered in the last five minutes before the bell rang.  This was a very effective way of learning and till today I still remember what I learnt in her class – actually hearing her voice in my head explaining the workings of the South West Monsoon or what is the difference between Kharif and Rabi crops only because she absolutely forbade Note taking in her class.

Why do we take notes? Why can’t we remember what is being said or at least try to remember what is being said? I do agree with Rujuta that taking notes is ensuring that your are not completely in the moment.

A friend of mine took me with her to a satsang which she thought I’d enjoy. All through the lecture, she was scribbling down words while I just listened to the master. On the way home we began discussing the class and she was shocked to find that I had absorbed certain points that she had missed. And what was worse – her handwriting was a meaningless scribble which she could barely make out. Since that day, she stopped taking notes but actually started taking note of what was being said.

              Do you like to take notes? Or do you prefer to take note?