KOCHI: A desire to learn new facts has earned a tiny tot an India Book of Records entry. Five-year-old Aneya Abhilash set a record by answering 70 general knowledge questions in two minutes and fifty-five seconds.
“Aneya always had a penchant for new information,” said her mother, Amrutha A. The Palakkad resident had her first tryst with general knowledge at the age of two when she came across her mother going through GK books as part of her preparations for the Kerala Public Service Commission examination.
“She would sit near me as I went through the questions in textbooks. At first, I didn’t take her curiosity seriously,” recalled Amrutha.
However, after Aneya one day asked her mother to teach her the things in the book, Amrutha began teaching her a few questions per day. “She was very quick and wanted to learn more. So, whenever I had time off my work and studies, I began coaching her in GK,” said Amrutha.
She then came across reports on people being recognised for such feats by the India Book of Records. “I thought why not enter Aneya too. She was doing so great and that too at such a tender age,” said Aneya’s mother, who had taken a break from appearing in PSC examinations for a year, and also coaching her daughter, due to a lack of time.
“But I restarted coaching Aneya after she showed an unflagging interest in learning GK,” she said. The mother said all one had to do to gain Aneya’s attention was to mention the golden words “general knowledge”, and she would get ready to learn.
Aneya, a UGK student, is currently being homeschooled by her mother. “After we resumed our GK studies, Aneya mastered over 150 facts. But we limited the number of questions to 70 for the record as going for bigger numbers would have caused a lag,” she said.