Record book craze: why India knows no limits - Hindustan Times
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Record book craze: why India knows no limits

Hindustan Times | ByAayush Soni
Dec 07, 2013 05:02 PM IST

What's making us cook a 342.5kg baingan bharta, playing guitar on top of Mount Everest or die trying to cross a river hanging from a pulley by our ponytail? We bring you why India is obsessed with making weird world records.

Anand Bansode didn’t have much fun growing up in Solapur, Maharashtra. His father was a motorcycle mechanic, he was the only brother to three unmarried sisters and he consistently failed subjects at school. A temporary escape from everyday drudgery was a construction site not very far from the family’s 10x10ft home. Here, Bansode climbed mounds of sand, a small achievement that was a preview of a more admirable triumph to come.





In May last year, 27-year-old Bansode scaled Mount Everest, but he didn’t stop there. Well aware that hundreds had conquered the summit before him, he decided he needed something to set himself apart, something unusual. And so, 20,669 feet above sea level, with cold winds biting into his tired limbs, and a few Sherpas and his mountaineering team as witnesses, Bansode pulled out a special lightweight guitar and began to play.



Odd records

* Subhash Agarwal holds the Guinness World Record for the maximum number of RTI applications.



http://www.hindustantimes.com/Images/popup/2013/12/150x280_trophy.jpg* In Rajkot, 24,435 couples shook hands to create a Guinness World Record for the most number of handshakes simultaneously.



* In Dimapur, 368 musicians performed a song to break the previous Guinness record set by 250 guitarists in England.



* Kapil Gehlot of Jodhpur pulled a 1,046kg Hyundai Accent car tied to his beard to a distance of 68.96 metres in 7min and 28sec on July 3, 2011. He has a place in the Limca Book.



* Jyoti Chindak of Belgaum, Karnataka, made the longest link with 500 butterflies in 2012. She used ceramic powder, foam sheet, paint and fine stone lace for the butterflies.



* Sucheta Kadethankar of Pune became the first Indian to walk across the Mongolian Gobi Desert, in 2011. She completed the 1,609km trek in 51 days, 11 hours and 40 minutes. She was among the successful seven of the 13-member international expedition team.
How to get into the record books
* The Guinness and Limca Book of Records accept applications online and for free. The Limca Book prefers hard copy applications.

* Once Guinness receives the application, they will send information packs titled ‘Evidence Required’ and ‘General Info’, outlining the documents needed to be submitted.

* For a fee, record holders can hire a Guinness World Records adjudicator to authenticate their records. The Limca Book will require you to authenticate your record claim by a gazetted officer, school or college principal.

* Once the application is received, Guinness World Records takes six weeks to assess it for an existing record and 12 weeks to assess the application for a fresh one.

* There are no cash rewards for record setters or holders. But the Limca Book of Records offers a 30 per cent discount on the cover price of the book.
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