Well, let me burst your bubble. As insane as your —seemingly— out-of-the-box talent may appear to you, it’s not the craziest. Some Indian Guinness Book World Record Holders will leave you flabbergasted with their talent. And I’m not even kidding! 

1. This Pune man did not cut his nails for an eternity 

Can you imagine your life with fingernails longer than your height? Shridhar Chillai stopped cutting his nails back in 1952. He holds a Guinness World Record for the longest fingernails on a single hand. His fingernails measured a whopping 358.1 inches i.e. 909.60 centimeters. The length and the mass of Chillai’s nails had several implications on his daily life as well. Today, his left hand doesn’t function.

In his schooldays, Chillai’s group was badly beaten by a teacher as one of them broke his nail. This one incident triggered Chillar to take a vow to never cut his nails as the professor said that they would never understand the care required to maintain long nails. A resolve made as a child remained unbroken for 66 years.

2. From candles to grapes, this Mumbai man specialises in stuffing things in his mouth

Dinesh Shivnath Upadhyay is a multiple record holder who specializes in ‘stuffing’ records. Candles, grapes, balls, pencils, ketchup, you name it and he does it. Additionally, along with his brother Manish, he also holds the record for the fastest time to peel and eat three oranges. Can you believe it? And you thought rolling your tongue was the most unique talent you had? 

Talking about it in an interview, Dinesh said he always wanted to be a record-breaker. In 40 plus categories, Dinesh has made the world record around 124 times. Sometimes, he breaks his own record. He is often referred as “Maximouth.”

3. This man types from his nose

We all can type from our fingers. No big deal. Fingers are a little cliché now. Davinder Singh from New Delhi can type from his nose. And mind you, he is the fastest in the world. Singh wrote, “Guinness World Records have challenged me to type this sentence using my nose in the fastest time” in mind-boggling 40.19 seconds. What do you think about this?   

4. This man has the longest moustache in the world

I think saying ‘the longest’ would be a mere understatement. Ram Singh Chauhan from Jaipur has a gigantic moustache that measures a startling 14 ft. Can you believe this? I was dumbfounded when I learned about this.

Chauhan and his family take immense pride in his moustache. He began on this journey more than 32 years ago. He spends at least two hours every day in grooming and maintaining it.

5. This Nagpur man sang for straight 105 hours. Yes, you read that right!

105 freaking hours! Sunil Waghmare from Nagpur is known for the longest singing marathon in the world. He sung for a record-breaking hundred-and-five hours. The marathon, which took place in 2012, lasted for five days. 

Unbelievable, isn’t it? I can’t imagine singing for 10 minutes straight.

6. 1356 Indians walked on fire consecutively and made this groundbreaking world record

This happened in Maharashtra in 2017 when 1356 people walked on fire consecutively. It was a corporate event where the company dared their employees to test their courage.

Now this is scary. Like very scary. Can you even imagine walking over fire? What would it do to your soles? Well, we Indians are fearless people.

7. This man tattooed his body with flags

The 79-year-old Rishi is passionate about making world records. He has 366 tattoos spread across his body. These are of different flags, maps, and characters. Basically, you’d never fail in International Geography if you’ve got Rishi around. Just think about the amount of dedication and courage it must have taken him to ink his body so much. Apparently, he also removed all his teeth to set the world record of stuffing the maximum amount of straws in his mouth. 

8. Meet the Indian Rapunzel. She was the teenager with longest hair 

Meet Nilanshi Patel, our Indian Rapunzel. When Patel was 16-year-old, her hair measured 5 ft. 7 inches, the longest hair ever on a teenager. She had started growing her hair when she was 6 and refrained from cutting them for the next ten years.

I think that Patel is a big motivation for all those who fret over maintaining their hair. She used to wash her hair once a week, it took her 1.5 hours to dry them and one hour to comb them. 

9. This teenager pulled a heavy vehicle just by his shoulder blades

Abhishek Choubey is known for achieving the world record of pulling the heaviest vehicle solely by his shoulder blades. In 2016, Choubey pulled Hyundai Accent GVS 2004 weighing 1070 kg. My body aches just with the thought of this. Choubey realised about his miraculous talent in his childhood itself. He then decided to propagate it further and created this mind-wrecking world record.

We all can sit together and wonder why anyone on earth would want to achieve world records like these. Undoubtedly, some of them are really peculiar. But, what’s more important is to acknowledge the commitment, sacrifices, and pains these record-holders undertake to achieve their goals. They deserve applause for their groundbreaking consistency. Kudos to these miraculous people!