Saturday, September 27, 2003
M A I N   F E A T U R E



A record-setter of sorts
Neeraj Bagga

Surinder Singh Azad on a record-setting spree
Surinder Singh Azad on a record-setting spree

AGE has not dampened the spirit of Surinder Singh Azad, a retired superintendent from Customs and Excise Department. He is determined to add more records to the already existing tally of 11 under his name in Limca Book of Records.

This 61-year-old, popularly known as ‘man of records’, has given trials for at least eight more records for the Limca book. He is determined to see his name in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Azad developed a penchant for setting records when he learnt that he could expand his chest by nine inches (22.8 cm). The normal expansion is not more than 6.3 cm. Limca Book of Records acknowledged his feat in 1990. This recognition nurtured in him a desire to do more such extraordinary things. Though records like snapping fingers and clapping may sound amusing and comical, he says, he has put his best efforts to achieve them.

 

Recalling the efforts he has put in to hold these records, he says he always wanted to do something exceptional. He started doing some exercises to increase his chest. He used to get up early in the morning to do chest exercises like the bench press. In addition, he used to do 1,000 push-ups and sit-ups daily. He prepared his diet in a way that it did not contain much cholesterol food.

Though most people would not attach much significance to the kind of records held by yet Azad maintains that he feels proud that he has made a name for himself. He drove his scooter from Amritsar to Pinjore and back, covering 534 km in fourth gear in 1993. It bagged him a record in Limca Book of Records for the second time.

He claims that he has been driving a scooter in the fourth gear since he bought it in 1979. It fetched him the third national record. In the year 1997 his two records — one for clapping 12,178 times and the other for snapping his fingers 11,510 times in an hour each — were also including in the Limca book. He snapped his fingers 290 times in a minute, which paved the way for his sixth record.

His seventh record even baffled the engineers at Bajaj Auto Ltd as he drove his scooter for 70 km in a litre. He created the eighth record by driving the slowest scooter ever in fourth gear i.e. 2.35 km per hour. He created his ninth record by driving the scooter in fourth gear with 10 pillion passengers. This record got a place in the Limca Book of Records in 1997.

In 2000, his two more records — which raised the number of records to 11, i.e. rotating the wrist 292 times in one minute and rotating his arm 136 times in a minute — were acknowledged in Limca book.

Azad says he takes even trivial matters seriously and tries to get the best out of them. Some other feats which he has shown to the committee of Limca Book of Records include clapping and snapping his fingers simultaneously for 6500 times each. He claims that he is the only retired person whose 11 records are listed in Limca Book of Records.