How many world records has India broken this year? How many can you name? To get you started, on 15 February, the team at ISRO drew cheers worldwide after they successfully launched 104 satellites in a single space mission. The previous record was 37 satellites, launched by Russia in 2014.
While the team at ISRO raises the bar every few months or so, here's a look at individuals who have etched their names in the Guinness Book of Records this year. Some of these are awe-inspiring, while others are downright whacky.
Limbo Skating Record
In May this year, Manipur boy Tiluck Keisam limbo skated his way through 145 metres in single run of 56.01 seconds. The eight-year-old Delhi resident is a now a double-record holder. For his last record, which he set in 2015, he skated 116 metres after lowering the bars by 7cm (the stipulated height is 35cm).
Read full story on The Quint.
Largest Margarine Sculpture
Not many people would pick margarine over butter. But Devwrat Anand Jategaonkar isn’t one of those people. If you hand him some margarine, then know that he will likely use it to break his own world record.
In February, Chef Devwrat created a 1,506.8 kg-heavy margarine sculpture of the Elephanta Trimurti to enter the world record books. The sculpture is 8-feet and 2-inches long and 6-feet 1-inch tall. (Tip: Don't carry slices of bread with you when you go to see the sculpture.)
Longest Crocheted Scarf
On 21 May, a group of crochet enthusiasts, under the name Mother India's Crochet Queens, set a new world record by knitting a 14.098km-long scarf.
Around 700 Indian women came together to knit the scarf, parts of which were sent to world leaders to promote peace. The remaining scarves were donated to NGOs around India, The Hindu reported. This isn't the knitting group's first attempt at a world record. In 2016, they knitted the world's largest crochet blanket (11,000 sq m).
Tallest Sandcastle
You knew Sudarsan Pattnaik would feature on this list somewhere. The sand artist, who is known for his timely social commentary, built a 48-foot-high sand castle in his hometown, Puri in Odisha.
He took nine days to build it and was acknowledged by the Guinness World Record officials in February.
Dancing All the Way to the Record Books
Indians broke not one but two world records for choreographed dancing this year. A whopping 4,525 dancers danced their way into the record books in Chennai in April. The previous record for largest Bharatnatyam performance was set in Kolhapur in 2015.
In May, 6,582 women – decked in traditional wear – gathered in Kerala’s Kizhakkambalam to create a record for the World’s Largest Kaikottikali dance.
Children Raise the Bar
Schoolchildren across India have also set a number of records of their own this year. Interestingly, a chunk of these records were set in February, perhaps to make the best of the pre-examination madness.
In the second week of February, students of Himachal Pradesh’s Moginand Senior Secondary School set a record when they flew 7,730 paper planes, which they had made, in under a minute. The feat was a part of an anti-tobacco drive. Read the full story here.
Later that month, the Jayanth Reddy International Taekwondo Academy in Hyderabad broke its previous record for the world’s largest Taekwondo display. A total of 1,152 martial arts student participated in the event.
Only a few months into 2017, and India already has a number of world records under her belt. Lot’s more to go!
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