Sashanna Chandroth may not even be seven years old yet, but her prowess at identifying human bones puts most adults to shame.
Shown several bone charts during a Zoom call, the precocious six-year old from Gelugor, Penang names different parts of the spine, hand, and leg with precision.
“Frontal. Zygomatic. Maxilla. Mandible. Lacrimal, occipital and temporal,” she recites confidently, looking at a diagram of the skull. Beside her, her father, who asks to be called Dr Navin, beams with pride.
Sashanna’s talent has been recognised by the Malaysia Book of Records for the most bones identified by a child in one minute.
“Identification of skeletal elements is not easy. Being able to name so many bones, in such a short time, is a challenge even for me,” Navin, a forensic anthropologist and pathologist, told FMT Lifestyle.
Sashanna, who enjoys puzzles, card games and wordsearches, said she remembers things really quickly, especially if they are fun. “My parents have always said I have a super good memory, even when I was a baby!” she beamed.
Indeed, her mother Neshallini recalls Sashanna showing signs of an exceptional memory from a very early age. Her daughter can remember exact details about events that took place years ago, such as what she had been wearing, or what had been showing on TV at the time.
But the true extent of her ability became evident when the family took a trip to Dundee, Scotland, where her father had been studying forensic anthropology at the time.
Curious about what her father was doing, Navin showed her the skeletal elements he had been studying.
“I realised she could memorise a good 50 bones or so in about three minutes, which surprised me, because I myself would take longer than that. This is quite a challenge even for those who are not in this field,” Navin recalled.
Upon the family’s return home, he contacted the Malaysia Book of Records, who decided to test Sashanna’s abilities by getting her to identify 45 random bones. These were selected from anywhere in the human body, and were not shown in any particular order.
Sashanna not only passed but exceeded expectations, identifying 50 bones in total!
Eidetic (or “photographic”) memory aside, Sashanna comes across as a regular soft-spoken child. She enjoys playing the piano and hopes to someday visit every Disneyland theme park in the world.
So, does she have a favourite bone? She names the pisiform, the tiniest bone of the hand – because it “sounds funny”.
“I really love the hand bones. They are like a jigsaw puzzle. My daddy told me those are super tricky and hard to remember, so I said I would try it. And I remembered them really fast in just a few minutes and surprised everyone!”
It will probably come as little surprise that Sashanna’s favourite subject in school is science. Her interest in bones even extends to dinosaurs, and she once wanted to be a palaeontologist.
For now, though, she hopes to become a doctor. “I think bones are super cool because they help us move and jump and dance. When people fall down and if they break their bones, I want to help them and make them feel better,” she concluded.
