Founders’ Letter: Core Memories
Why do we need to preserve our memories —
Many of us intrinsically want to live a meaningful life and in doing so also contribute with our maximum capability to certain aspects we deem most important.
Irrespective of whether a person ends up living their life up to their full potential or not, irrespective of them reaching their desired goals or not, there is always the journey of life that happens to each of us. No matter who we are, where we live, or what we do for a living, this holds true across families, states, nations, boundaries, and beliefs.
Think about it.
The very history about how people who lived in the past generations, about how we globally evolved as a species to our modern civilization, has all been possible because all such important information was “recorded” in some way or the other. There have also been personal accounts of well-known people in society with writings and other forms, which allows us to have an insight into their way of thinking. Even today in the year 2021, we have biopics made or biographies written of various public figures.
But how often have we seen such consideration being given to a common man who lives their life synchronously albeit a lost one in regards to personal documentation? The very memories that we create and all the experiences that shape each of our lives just get lost over the years while still living or even forgotten when the person is no more around. This fact of so many life stories getting withered away left me searching for answers.
Why we exist —
Whether one is over 60 years of age or 25, the only constant thing is the change that keeps happening to a person's beliefs and perspectives of how they thought about things before and how they think about the same things now after many years. Now imagine a plethora of your life experiences being faded & forgotten over time or worse — due to illness. How do we get back those original memories of our experiences? We can’t. Well, at least not in its originality. According to the forgetting curve of Hermann Ebbinghaus, the retention of memory decreases significantly over time. On a brighter note, using a method called “Spaced interval repetition” these memories can be recalled to a certain extent to be remembered for a longer period of time and this became the primary basis for offering our yearly “Memory Insurance” service.
I personally gave a lot of thought to the answers over the last decade after my personal experience of a cousin passing away unexpectedly.
How do we fix this in times as we live where capturing moment-to-moment photos for the social media craze seems to be the norm? It then becomes essential now, more than ever before, to differentiate between the moments that are captured on a day-to-day basis and the “experiences” that end up making the person who they are. In hindsight when we look back over the journey of any individuals life, there may be:
1) a pattern we end up following or breaking for better or worse
2) several turning points and life-changing decisions
3) experiences that had a major impact
4) once in lifetime events
5) personal achievements, and many other details about a person which make them unique and unlike anybody else.
What we do — and how we do it
Recording of such kind becomes an utmost priority for elderly citizens and patients. Even though the official journey of Core Memories began in 2021, the background research and work had started back in 2017 where the initial plan was to launch an app for everyone to create their own timelines and convert their memories into digital media storage online. Halfway through the process, the approach was scrapped as it defeated the purpose of Human-to-human interaction for asking questions, being there to listen to the narrator, and the unique opportunity of knowing another person’s life to see things in a new way, with a new perspective, to have a deeper insight about various expressions of life itself.
All of it is possible through “Oral History recording” wherein the narrator and the oral historian interact with one another and an informal interview is conducted to create a chronological order of a person’s life experiences. This provides a way for adults, elderly citizens, and patients to leave their life’s legacy to their loved ones which will be cherished for generations to come. And in most situations, this may be the only thing that a person leaves behind that is genuinely their’s.
Especially in India, where apart from creating a will to leave behind an inheritance, there is a lack of service to help the common people to preserve the experiences they remember.
We are not just here to create awareness about life story recording. Core Memories is here to record and preserve the experiences of as many lives as possible. We are in this for the long haul.
With the exception of the Oral History Association of India, Core Memories is the only company in India focused completely on recording & preserving life experiences. We utilize the power of Oral History recording to pursue this.
We also understand that it will take tremendous efforts to expand our services across all the states in India and we will soon be launching a community portal to get together all the Oral Historians in India. We believe the work of having conversations to record people’s life to be of the highest order. We get to touch people’s lives with what we do. If you give it a shot, you might love it too.
We empower — our individuals — to find the high-quality life story recording they deserve. We give them flexibility, personalization, and fond reminiscence, leading to happier, fulfilled, and remembered lives. Our goal is for every individual to experience excellent oral history recording session(s) wherever they are.
We empower — our oral historians — to more efficiently do the work they love. We give them tools to help them provide the individuals with an excellent, personalized, Human-Life-Centric session(s). Our goal is for every oral historian to have the necessary information they need to provide Oral history recording of the highest standards.
I am thrilled to finally be able to offer this amazing service to others. There is no reason to wait until the final days to create our legacy. We all have a story to tell. Let us help you preserve yours so that you can pass it on.
