Indians in the Guinness Book

The birth of the idea of a book of world records started in the most unlikeliest of places, the pub. The debate whether the Golden Plover is faster than the Grouse, over a mug of beer in an Irish Pub, led Sir Hugh Beaver of the Guinness Brewing Company to assign the task of compiling records to the twins, Norris and Ross McWhirther. Aug 27, 1955 saw the first edition of the The Guinness Book of Records hit the stands. Small wonder that it was an instant best seller in the UK. Today, the same is available in 23 languages and sales are closing in on 100 million copies. The Guinness world records.com is a site well visited and the Guinness World Records television show has an audience of 100 million spread over 35 countries.

Chennai Watch decided to check out interesting Indian entries which fascinate, stimulate, amaze, amuse, revolt and inspire. And the results are worth the search. Go on and feed your curiosity.

We can’t restrain ourselves from starting with Chennai’s own entry. You guessed it. Amma’s lavish banquet for over 1,50,000 guests at the much publicized wedding of her foster son, V N Sudhakaran, to the granddaughter of the late tamil cine legend, Chevalier Sivaji Ganeshan. Hosted at the sprawling palace garden near foreshore estate, each plantain leaf on which food was served was large enough for three. Experts said that this was reminiscent of royal weddings of yore.

In the sports section, Kapil Dev finds an entry as the best allrounder with 5,248 runs at an average of 31.05, 64 catches in 131 matches in a career spanning 16 years. He inspired a breed of fast bowlers among whom is Javagal Srinath, the current spearhead.

And lo! Can there be a Book of Records without the Little Master Sachin Tendulkar, a sporting icon in the country. The biggest partnership (331 runs) in an ODI is held by Sachin (186 not out) and Rahul Dravid (153) in a match versus New Zealand in Hyderabad in 1999. It is interesting to note that Rajiv Nayyar batted for 16 hours and 55 minutes scoring 271 for Himachal Pradesh in 1999. The batting lasted over three days.

Ravi Shastri finds mention for scoring 36 runs in a 6-ball over at Mumbai in 1985. The bowler who’d like to forget that over was Tilak Raj Sharma. The youngest cricketer was Eshmail Ahmed who was blooded at Ahmedabad in 1951 at 11 years 261 days. While the oldest was Raja Maharaja Singh, a former Mumbai Governor, who was 72 years and 192 days while playing a Commonwealth XI in 1950. And who can forget Kumble’s Grand Ten against traditional rivals, Pakistan, with figures of 10 for 74. He sits proudly besides Jim Laker who took 10 for 53 versus Australia.

Rajkumar Chakrabory of Rourkela stamped his class in a back-breaking effort sitting unsupported against a wall for 11 hour 5 mins, while fellow Indian, Swami Maujgiri Maharaj stood for 17 years continuously while doing a penance between 1955 and 1973. While it was time to sleep, he just leaned against a wooden plank. Tamilian V Jeyaraman has done us proud by clapping continuously for 58 hour 9 min at an average of 160 claps per minute.

Running backwards may seem a cowardly act, but not for Arvind Pandya who ran backwards from Los Angeles to New York in 107 days. People can do the weirdest things to gain public attention and break records. Amusing among them is the sight of Shridhar Chillal of Poona whose nails on the left hand stretch to 20 ft 2.25 in, which had women audience shrieking during the Guinness Book of Records TV Show.

Putting to shame the forest brigand, Veerappan, is Kalyan Ramji Sain whose moustache stretches to 3.39 m long enough to sweep the floor. It took 17 years to grow this and Kalyan keeps it rolled in a coil on his cheek.

With over 4.9 million cassettes and CDs, Malkit Singh is the most successful bhangra artist belting out hits tuned to native Punjabi beat. One-man shows may not be popular these days but to Laxman Deshpande’s credit, he has performed Varhad Nighalay Londoonla, 1930 times since 1976. Like our own T Rajender he has produced, directed and acted in all his shows.