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78-year-old Shridhar Chillal is from India. Chillal has been growing his fingernails since he was 16 years old and now, he holds the 2016 Guinness World Record for the Longest Fingernails on a Single Hand.
The challenge
Chillal shared the anecdote that motivated him to let his nails grow. It all started as a challenge in school.
“When I was a schoolboy, we were once beaten badly by our teacher, because my friend broke his nail. The teacher had grown a very long nail. We asked him why he had beaten us so much for just breaking his nail. He said that we would not understand as we had never grown long nails. Unless we grew long nails we would never understand the kind of care required not to break them.”
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A very “long” hand
The man has only been growing the nails on his left hand, and today, they have a cumulative length of 909.6 cm. His thumbnail is 2 meters long, his middle fingernail is 1.866 m long, his ring finger nail is 1.816 m long, his little finger nail measures 1.791 m and his index fingernail is 1.645 m long.
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An unpopular choice
Shridhar’s close ones were not fond of his decision. His family and his teachers encouraged him to cut his nails.
“First our family members opposed, then teachers were opposed but I decided from that point on that I would never cut my nails again,” he recalls.
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The outlier
“Initially, difficulties appeared everywhere in my daily life. My family really didn’t like it, no one would wash my clothes and I had to wash them by hand. Finding a job was also difficult, as no one was ready to employ me […] When I was to get married, no one was ready to marry me, I saw nearly 10 to 12 girls. If the girl agreed to marry, her parents would say I would strangle their daughter’s neck and refuse. If the parents agreed, the girl would say she would not marry such a dirty person.”
Fortunately, he managed to marry his brother’s sister-in-law when he was 29.
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Beating the odds
Chillal proved people wrong when he found a job as a photographer. Though he could only use his right hand, Shridhar managed to keep the job until his retirement in 1995. Keeping up with his long fingernails came with some drawbacks. As his nails grew longer, they caused nerve damage. Today, he can only hear with his right ear.[/gallerypage]
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The “biggest goal oh his life”
Shridar feels accomplished today. Making it to the Guinness World Records was the “biggest goal in his life.” Now that he achieved this objective, he plans to cut his nails off and have them preserved in a museum.
“I have been growing my nails since 1952 so it is now 63 years since I first started to let my nails grow.Now that I am 78 years old, my nails have become much more delicate due to my age, so my wish is to preserve these nails in a museum […] I can tell everyone now with pride about my record. When I am on my travels, people will recognise me as a Guinness World Records title holder.”
SEE ALSO: These 11 Guys Were Born With Superpowers. Yes: Real Life Super Heroes Exist.
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