World's Largest Handmade Bead Flag

An Abu Dhabi resident is attempting to make the largest handmade flag with beads to enter Guinness World Records. Indian expatriate Jeyaraman Ravi, 41, is giving final touches to the UAE national flag after a 14-month-long endeavour.

"I have completed two decades of my life here and wanted to give a tribute to this nation by doing something exceptional," Ravi told Gulf News.

"My life has become prosperous after reaching the UAE and this is a thanksgiving gesture," says Ravi who hails from southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. He is working as a Public Relations Representative at a computer support systems company and living with his family in Abu Dhabi.

Ravi said he had been working about eight hours daily during the past 14 months to make the 3-metre-long and 1.5-metre wide flag with 288,400 beads. It weighs about 10 kilograms.

He produced the copy of an e-mail from Guinness World Records (GWR) which says a new record category has been opened for him.

As per the requirement of Guinness World Records, he can enter the records by exhibiting the completed flag at a public event and send the proof certified by government and media officials.

But Guinness World Records has also a provision to send their own adjudicator to attend the event and present the certificate recognising the achievement by immediately announcing that a new record has been established, says the mail from GWR.

Ravi says he wants to invite the GWR adjudicator to Abu Dhabi.

"But I am waiting for a sponsor. I am not in a position to bear the expenses [which may come about Dh30,000]," says Ravi who already spent about Dh4,000 to purchase beads and threads.

About the authenticity of his attempt , he claimed he can tell how many beads have been used in each and every part of the flag. "Nobody else can count it".

His wife said Ravi has been spending sleepless nights to reach the final stages of his attempt. "When the entire family was sleeping, he was busy with the beads and threads," said Deepa, who is a teacher at an English Private School.

Doing art works had been his hobby when he was a student. "When I was in college, I used to make wallets and prototypes of animals with beads," said the man who is waiting to establish a world record.
Figures

Number of beads used :288,400
The size of the flag: 3 metres long and 1.5 metres wide
Time taken: About eight hours in 14 months.
Weight :10 kilogram
Threads used: 850 grams.

- Golf News

Oldest living person in the UK is celebrating her 113th birthday

Guinness World Record holder Florence Emily Baldwin, known as Florrie, was born in the city on 31 March 1896.

Mrs Baldwin, whose husband Clifford died in 1973, once met Queen Victoria in Leeds, was 16 when the Titanic sank and 73 when man landed on the moon.

Mrs Baldwin's family said she was still putting up new curtains and cleaning windows at the age of 105.

They said she was a single-minded lady who had been fit all her life and had not even been registered with a doctor until she was 104.

Her only contact with the medical world had been a cataract operation when she was in her 80s.

Charlotte Hughes was 115 years and 228 days when she died in 1993, and is still the oldest Briton ever.

Last Sunday, World War 1 veteran Henry Allingham became the oldest ever British man, after clocking up 112 years and 296 days.

World’s Largest Pen Record set by Biswaroop India

New Delhi Making and breaking records come naturally to Biswaroop Roy Chowdhury. At 35, he has already been setting world records for past 10 years.

“I like to do something creative each day and test myself,” he says. With two Guinness world records to his name, one in 2006 for memorising 14 names with birth dates in less than two minutes and the other in 2007 for performing 198 push-ups in a minute, Chowdhury will soon feature in a Guinness World Record publication with a third record under his belt.

He has created the world’s largest pen that weighs 10 kg and is 12 feet long. On Sunday, he displayed this pen before the media and onlookers and even scribbled with it. “Earlier, this record was held by Olaf Fuguer from Sachsen, Germany who made a 10 feet x 11 inch pen weighing 8 kg in 2005. When I saw this record while leafing through the 2009 edition of the Guinness World Records, I was impressed and determined to break it,” he says. Chowdhury then applied to Guinness to confirm whether anyone had successfully attempted to break the record set in 2005.

After receiving the green signal from Guinness, Chowdhury began working on the pen. The ballpoint pen is made up of a combination of 60 per cent steel and rest plastic to give it stability. The inner layer has been coated with plastic while the outer layer is made of steel. With his crew of 25 people working round-the-clock, Chowdhury used his expertise as a production engineer to get over minor hassles.

“We encountered difficulty in filling the pen with ink because each time we tried, the ink would spill over. So I had to make slight adjustments in design,” he explains, mentioning that one of the conditions for the record is that it should work.

Initially, the pen weighed 50 kg and this was causing a problem. Each time he attempted to write, the ball pen punched through paper. After a few tweaks, the weight was lowered to 10 kg and in a span of five months, the pen was complete.

Chowdhury again reconfirmed with Guinness whether the record set in 2005 still stood. “When they told me nobody else had attempted to break the record, I was elated. This was going to be my third Guinness record,” he says.

Chowdhury has also made a special 2X2 ft iron stand and a rexin cover for the pen. “I wanted to give it the look of an ordinary pen with a stand and pen cover.”

Before one enters the Guinness World Records, there is a procedure one must follow. Each candidate has to bring out a public notice about the record and then display the record attempt before journalists and government officials. The video and print coverage has to be sent to Guinness and after verification Guinness enters the candidate’s name in the books.

“I have the official certificate from Guinness allowing me to display my record. Now I will send the video footage to them. And by 2010 they will add my name to their record book,” he says, already thinking of his next record attempt.