New Delhi, India – How do you stand out in a land with 1 billion people? Radhakant Baj pai did it by growing his ear hair more than 5 inches long.
Vadivelu Karunakaren did it by skipping 10 miles in 58 minutes.
Arvind Morarbhai Pandya did it by running 940 miles backward in 26 days and seven hours.
India is a land obsessed with superlatives, especially the kind that get you into the Guinness World Records book. Here, a Guinness record is the stuff of national headlines.
“Orissa man claims a record for cracking open 72 coconuts by elbow!” the Hindustan Times, a leading newspaper, trumpeted last month. “Uttar Pradesh boy can write on mustard seeds!” said a headline in July.
And this just in from the Times of India, another highly respected daily: “Man looks to set world record pulling vehicles with mustache.”
Why the fascination? India, after all, is awash in genuine superlatives – world’s largest democracy, world’s largest youth population. Why bother with fastest to drink a bottle of ketchup? Guinness Rishi – yes, his name is Guinness – submitted the ketchup record after downing a bottle in 39 seconds.
The Guinness company has yet to accept his bid.
Rishi said he breaks records – his business card lists 19 feats – to distinguish himself in one of the world’s biggest crowds.
“People consider me an extraordinary person, not an ordinary person,” he said.
India, holding 219 Guinness world records, is only 10th on the list. The U.S. has the most, followed by Britain, Australia and Germany. But for sheer obsessive enthusiasm and ingenuity in dreaming up new superlatives, India seems unbeatable.
The explanations are various.
In the new India, more people than ever are earning prestigious degrees and staggering salaries. But for millions who don’t have access to such routes for success, aiming for world records, no matter how ridiculous, provides an outlet in a society as rigid and hierarchical as India’s, say Rishi and other world-beaters.
Santosh Desai, a columnist with the Times of India, says it’s an example of India’s hunger for Western approval, a defining trait in a country racing to achieve superpower status. “We are desperate to be acknowledged by the world as being worthy,” Desai said.
For world-beaters who fail to reach the peaks of Guinness, there is the local Limca Record Book, published by Coca-Cola, a junior-varsity league for India’s unlikely feats. Another rung down is the website where people pay $50 to have their record posted.
Some in India say that as living standards soar, Guinness mania will peter out.
“I think India will outgrow its desire to grow its nails faster than the rest of the world,” Desai said.
