This picture is going to haunt me for the rest of the day, after laloo prasad yadav, this is the longest ear hair I have seen on a huma being.

I hope he does not have a wife who has to endure this.

Hmmm..the second time i'm seeing this in the past week. Here is where is saw it first - http://www.whatay.com/2007/10/26/dont-touch-me-there/( a funny article about visits to the local barber )
Btw, there are many more 'gems' on this blog.:-)

@#2,
Pravin... She probably has chin hair equally long to keep him company.

I keep one of these handy and use it atleast once a week.Now, please excuse me while I go barf.

Cliff

I used to notice something really funny when I would walk by a barber shop in India. After a guy would get his hair cut, the barber would nonchalantly shave the guy's armpit hair in front of everyone.

Thanks Amardeep! Also, there's an Associated Press article that the Melvin Durai columns was based on, here, which has many explanations and hypotheses for why India holds so many records, both plausible and otherwise.

On a more serious note, the AP article also describes the 4-year old who ran a marathon, and the 15-year old who did a C-section surgery.

After a guy would get his hair cut, the barber would nonchalantly shave the guy's armpit hair in front of everyone.

It would be worse if he were to do it in private and it ended up as a Youtube video from someone's hidden camera.

Western beauty standards! OK, the record attempt is ridiculous, but hey, he looks pretty healthy and clean.

i wanna touch.

After a guy would get his hair cut, the barber would nonchalantly shave the guy's armpit hair in front of everyone.

Ouch....!!! I am still trying to shake that image off my head.

If Radhakant Bajpai is a potter by profession, he can call himself India's Hairy Potter.

Western beauty standards! OK, the record attempt is ridiculous, but hey, he looks pretty healthy and clean.

Well, if he's clean, then he's no Dirty Hairy.

Can you imagine how painful electrolysis would be for this man's ear hair? I wonder if laser is applicable to ear hair?

There seems to be an increasing # of gimmicks @ SM to attract an audience. This comes at the expense of quality, which is of course difficult to define in the blogosphere. Nevertheless, my claim is made and I encourage all of you to become reactionary and defensive.

From what I have read over the years the Guinness Book of Records has a very special fascination for some Indians, who seem to dedicate their lives to getting into it. In his own indirect way, Melvin Durai has suggested possible reasons for this fascination.

Brown Supremacist @14,

Actually, I was pretty pleased with all the serious news converage and discussion yesterday, though I am also not a fan of these "humor" posts. Then again, they are clearly labelled "humor," so we could just ignore them and focus on the better days/posts, right?

As long as they don't come at the expense of better (in my opinion) work that the same bloggers do, I'm fine.

I am too busy looking for my next low-class gimmick (i.e., a funny YouTube video) to have time to become defensive or "reactionary."

Cheers!

I hope he does not have a wife who has to endure this.

Excerpt of dialogue from Seinfeld-

George: I wish there were pigmen. You get a few of these pigmen walking
around I'm looking a whole lot better. Then if somebody wants to
fix me up at least they could say, "Hey he's no pig-man!"

Jerry: Believe me, there'd be plenty of women going for the pig-men. No
matter what the deformity you'll find some group of perverts
attracted to it. "Oo that little tail turns me on."

I think my breakfast just came up. This picture is going to make me nauseate for a long time.

i actually had to take a 2nd look to see the ear hair...i just thought he had a weird hair cut.

i actually had to take a 2nd look to see the ear hair...i just thought he had a weird hair cut.

Me too! This whole supposed obsession of Indians to 'get into the Guinness Book' is worth exploring in some more detail. To what extent is it really a publisher's gimmick to sell the book? I mean, I've never known anybody myself that did weird things to get into the book, but somehow I keep coming across it in the papers, and now we have random people in Saudi Arabia (Saudi Arabia?!!) pointing to Indians as 'people who are in the Guinness Book a lot'. The people supposedly involved are always in some remote place, and always in it for supposedly doing something rather humiliatingly weird.

Does anybody ever ask why the Book bothers publishing these so-called 'records'? Why do newspapers report the press releases from the Book? Are the Book and its publishers merely laughing all the way to the bank at the expense of Indians, while we blog about how grossed out we were by the ear hair, or the toenail or the guy who ate live snakes, or breathed in mercury vapor or....

I guess it bothers me that this thing is getting so out of hand that the perception becomes larger than the phenomenon itself. You're Indian? So what are you in the Guinness Book for? Or are you so not in it, which itself is news, so you must be in it, at least in the next edition?

*Yawn*....Really amardeep, did you not find anything else to post today?

Does anybody ever ask why the Book bothers publishing these so-called 'records'? Why do newspapers report the press releases from the Book?

Chachaji, the Guinnes Book of Records was started primarily to fill the need to settle bar bets. You know the type: "I once saw this guy at this bar who could lick his forehead with his tongue". "Ten bucks says he did not! Nobody's tongue is that long.". "You're on!", etc. The specific question that led to the creation of the book was what the fastest game bird in Europe was. As a reference to settle bar bets, it was to be expected that it would have a long list of superlatives relating to the human anatomy, without any prejudice towards any race or country.

That said, it does strike me as odd that India gets many records simply by existing (largest democracy etc), and that many Indian records have very low entry barriers. For instance, India does not hold the record for slicing a cucumber into the thinnest slices in the fastest time (which was held by a US chef, and admittedly requires skill and practice). India does not hold the record for the fastest barbecue-lighting (a US software guy who used liquid oxygen to light his charcoal in 3 seconds). Note that both require practice and/or special material, not just dedication. India does hold the record for longest finger nails, or ear hair, or walking backwards, or drinking ketchup, or clapping, for all of which one needs only dedication and no special training or equipment. I have observed this to be largely true, but I cannot find a satisfactory explanation for it.

We all are ridiculous; but some ridiculousness are not obvious to casual observers.

*Yawn*....Really amardeep, did you not find anything else to post today?

I'm sure an Indian holds the record for the longest yawn too.

I just lost my appetite.. Seriously.. I was having a late late breakfast at my desk and browsing SM and I just lost the urge to finish eating.

Santosh Desai, a columnist with the Times of India, another newspaper that covers Guinness bids like political campaigns, says it's an example of India's hunger for Western approval, a defining trait in a country racing to achieve superpower status.

Like making a fool out of yourself at an important social function in some terribly misguided notion that it will garner respect.

"I tell you, that Raj fellow is going places. After I saw him dress up like a clown, and smash a pie in his face, I knew he was the right guy to lead HR. Then when he told me that he held a Guiness record longest toe nails, that just about clinched the deal."

I am too busy looking for my next low-class gimmick (i.e., a funny YouTube video) to have time to become defensive or "reactionary."

Amardeep, you of all people should have the right to post something light now and then. Keep up the good work!

Inv,

Are you kidding me? There is no culture of chasing guiness records in India any more than Malaysia. I don't even know where to begin, certain section of the society revels in these kind of things and majority of people don't give a hoot. Please don't add to the myth about all Indians chasing records.

salacious crumb! ..is that you?

That's exactly what I was thinking too.

there was also this attempt at breaking a record for largest guitar assembly the other day in meghalaya

There should a Guinness entry for the longest one can stare at that picture without any reaction whatsoever. I dare SM readers to stare at for one whole minute and neither throw up nor burst out in laughter.

"We all are ridiculous; but some ridiculousness are not obvious to casual observers."

hehe. well said. give the chap a break. society needs some "oddballs" and eccentrics willing to go against the grain in search of their own dreams, whatever they may be.

if i were him, i would at least smile in the damn picture.

And I thought it was just hares that had long ears... works the other way too.

I think he would look totally freakish (as if!) if he smiled also. I don't think I can take a combo of such deadly hair and teeth!

Actually, I do think there is a rich and varied tradition of eccentricity in india, which speaks to being somewhat non-conformist and is something to treasure and appreciate. We are a poor people, growing hair or walking backwards is a cheap way to distinguish yourself from your neighbors and earn the admiration of our local buds.

I dont see anything yukky about this guys appearance. If you compare it, for example, to the obsession with depilation and shaving body hair that all western women indulge in, its downright healthy and a positive body image.

I dont see anything yukky about this guys appearance. If you compare it, for example, to the obsession with depilation and shaving body hair that all western women indulge in, its downright healthy and a positive body image.

In fact, if anything, he should style them hairs up a bit. so they look like this.

Let's look on the bright side. If he goes bald, he has enough follicles to transplant.

I think I just found out what my Halloween costume it is.

Pingpong (23):

That said, it does strike me as odd that India gets many records simply by existing (largest democracy etc), and that many Indian records have very low entry barriers. For instance, India does not hold the record for slicing a cucumber into the thinnest slices in the fastest time (which was held by a US chef, and admittedly requires skill and practice). India does not hold the record for the fastest barbecue-lighting (a US software guy who used liquid oxygen to light his charcoal in 3 seconds). Note that both require practice and/or special material, not just dedication. India does hold the record for longest finger nails, or ear hair, or walking backwards, or drinking ketchup, or clapping, for all of which one needs only dedication and no special training or equipment. I have observed this to be largely true, but I cannot find a satisfactory explanation for it.

I've got one! How about...less access to special equipment and training, but dedication in spades?

Heck, I've got a barrel full of Amar Chithra Kathas bursting with stories of various gurus, kings, and just ordinary folk who propitiated various gods (though it usually seemed to be Shiva or Vishnu) by doing stuff like standing on one foot for ten years, or not breathing for a few years, or cutting off their own ear and sacrificing it as a burnt offering.

Compared to that kind of stuff, growing your ear hair out must seem like easy pickings. Of course, you don't get Vishnu granting you a boon, either. You just get your name in a book.

You just get your name in a book.

and mention on a blog.

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your shears....

Obviously a dignified, handsome man. In spite of the ear hair, so he deserves extra credit.

by doing stuff like standing on one foot for ten years, or not breathing for a few years, or cutting off their own ear and sacrificing it as a burnt offering.

Pretty neat analogy from mythology there. It's almost like only dedication is counted as significant so that the unequal access to materials and tools is removed from the equation, so that even the most deprived member of the religion could feel an access to spirituality (if they believed in it anyway). But it doesn't seem to stop there - only dedication seems to be significant, not achievement. I had a 19th century ancestor who wrote Rama's name some ridiculously large number of times (really!), and this apparently boosted his SES for some reason. I am not religious myself but I'm pretty sure I could print Rama's name several million times onscreen and nobody would think that was great in any way. In fact it might lower my personal SES by several points and some people might refuse to share their genetic material with me if I tell them I wrote a program to do that. But I can see that the dedication-above-all-else mentality explains a lot about the nature of Guinness records that Indians often seem to get.

Brown: I apologize for not citing the source of the quote.

USAToday:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-09-04-2138318972_x.htm

My post was in response to the article's assertion that Indian's have a growing need to appeal to Western sentiments. I never explicitly mentioned that India has an obsession with strange records.

Roddy Doyle's short story would have ended much sooner as flash fiction were Mr Bajpai the narrator in it.

Coincidentally both this post and the story appeared on the same day!

Ear Jordan prastut karta hai NOTHING BUT HAIRNET!

Doesn't he look like the Pakistani dictator Zia ul Haq?

Sweden shall bravely attempt to top the ear-hair record with... World's Longest Nose Hairs.

All this world record talk reminds me of a recent South Park episode.

I just got a haircut in India at a high-end hotel ( $350 a night). It was unusual in a couple of respects. 1. They gave an incredible head/neck massage after the haircut. 2. They included a shave with old-time razors that scared the bejeesus out of me when they shaved my throat/neck. 3. With tip it came out to $15. What an experience with the massage.

I think chachaji's comment (Number 21) is well worth pondering.

I think chachaji's comment (Number 21) is well worth pondering.

maybe if we all ponder in the comments on this post, sepia mutiny could get into the guinness as the most ponderous blog? folks, together, we can make it happen!

The lack of rural electrification in the BIMARU states has lead to the evolution of tactile sensory ear hair. Now Bajpai can successfully navigate the dark streets of Naya Ganj, an adaptive advantage that will ensure that his seed thrives

at first, I thought "he needs to use the blow dryer a little less..." then I looked again

Go India!! That's right!

I didn't realize that was his ear hair in the picture....