I have actually trained myself to have a memory that today is dismal in certain regards, but impeccable in others. I am glad, for I only remember the coarse details and not the trivialities which would in the end have not much of an impact on the whole nostalgic sensation.

Names, are important and like I always justify my forgetfulness of names, I only remember a name if you’ve made an impact on me. There are too many acquaintances for me to log their names, for no consequence of importance. If you are important to me, and I have forgotten your name (which hasn’t been the case until now), then it is worth a complaint, not otherwise. And another aspect to this name problem is the lack of identity most of these names carry. When I or any of us remember a name,of course, we don’t remember it by mapping it to the meaning of the word, but to the traits we want to remember in that person. For instance, I would expect that most of you might map my name either to writing, free software, or off late to signals and teaching 😛
I give you tangible options to register me in your head, and of course you ought to help me with such cues!
You got an incentive to get better now – getting into my contact book!

Dates – phurrr (thanks to masakkali:P )! Usually to infuriate my mother I say that I don’t want to be bound by time, and hence wouldn’t follow date too! Although it isn’t pragmatic, I end up remembering the number as the date, but miss the day of occasion. There are numerous such anecdotes of me having thought the date was not the day! Can’t blame me either, time is relative and my time is formless! 😛
Makes me feel eternal!

Getting to places: If you have been lucky enough to get a ride in my two wheeler, you would know that my road instincts are horrible. It might not be the best thing to let my instincts guide me through the routes instead of landmarks, but it consumes too much of effort and practice for me to learn a route. My navigational skills are worse, for I have a malfunctioning compass somewhere within me. Not a big problem, prompts me to use public transport as much as possible.
I reduce emission from my part, and buy more time to read!

Tasks, when forgotten hurt the most. This is the only thing I am concerned about. I get into numerous commitments and I usually try to deliver on time. With an amnesic attack, I usually am found susceptible to firing from my task masters!
Although now I am shamelessly glad about the fact that people do come to me knowing that I might forget and hence take extra precautions to keep me reminded about the tasks!
Reputation as an amnesiac – buys me more time!

Reading & writing: I read quite a lot, and I might be able to quote verbatim from any book I read not more than a few sentences. I would still remember the entire flow and gist of the books, for, I would have assimilated that portion into me. It helps me because when I do write, I do not want to have the influence of the writing style of other people I read, at least not consciously !
I forget my own writing, and even a week old post I might have written seems amusing and pleases me immensely to realise that it was I who wrote it!

This being the bad side of the story, my memory is awesome when it comes to words! I rarely have forgotten a new word and its meaning, or even the spelling except for the eternal confusion of “ie” or “ei”! Not just words from literature, technical jargon too sticks with me like dirt (bad simile, but conveys well!).
Remembering words is a gift sometimes, for, I can use them effectively and I happen to remember the context of my rendezvous with the words vividly and hence helps me use them effectively, instead of misusing them.

While it might not be a real good robe to wear – amnesia, I am only selectively amnesic and it is fun, and somehow makes me more interesting than a solid state memory device of 64 GB capacity 😛