India,??? ? ?? the second most populous nation in the world, is full of quirks and eccentricities. Here are some of its uniquely odd achievements that made it to the Guinness World Records this year.
1. Largest individual 'laddoo'
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable It weighs 29,465 kg (64,959.21 lb) and was achieved by PVVS Mallikharjuna Rao in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. A popular Indian sweet, the laddoo was prepared with refined ghee (clarified butter), oil, cashew nuts, sugar, almonds, cardamom and water.
2. Most lit candles in the mouth
This man from Mumbai could fit 17 burning candles in his mouth. Dinesh Shivnath Upadhyaya is known to have a fetish for putting weird objects in his mouth. Last year, his candle record stood at 15, which he went on to better this year.
Here's a video of last year's feat.
3. 79 hugs in a minute
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable Krishna Kumar of Hyderabad in southern India speed-hugged 79 people, most of them young school students, one after the other, in a matter of 60 seconds. He actually embraced 83 people, but the Guinness World Records team disqualified some of the hugs for being more like headlocks.
Watch the video.
4. Most number of headstands
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable December's Yoga World Festival held in the southern Indian city of Chennai saw 648 people doing headstands simultaneously. Interestingly, on International Yoga Day in June, yoga guru Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Yogpeeth Trust saw 408 people doing headstands together in Faridabad. And that was a record then.
5. Largest voucher installation
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable Created by cellular service provider Vodafone in the northern Indian city of Agra, this prepaid voucher replica was 62 ft 5.5 inches long and 40 ft 1 inch high. The company installed this gigantic voucher to celebrate its assortment of offers available through coupon recharges. Unfortunately, it couldn't be encashed.
6. Largest dirt cake
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable Baking Buddies, a baking company in the IT city of Bangalore, made this dirt cake that weighed a whopping 1,078 kg (2,377 lb.). This one contained 220 kg cream cheese, 190 litres whipped cream, 550 kg crushed sandwich cookies, 65 kg sugar, 180 litres milk, 45 kg custard powder, 35 kg sweets, 85 kg butter and 35kg worth of edible decoration, and took 10 long hours to prepare. The recipe for the cake was a Guinness-approved traditional dirt pudding cake recipe.
Here's a video of the baking.
7. Largest crochet blanket
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable About 2,500 women from a Facebook group by the name ofMother India's Crochet Queens got together in Chennai to make the largest crochet blanket in the world, measuring a stunning 11,148.5 m² (120,001 ft² 72 in²), almost the size of a football field. Later, the individual squares were taken apart and donated to needy charities.
Watch the video.
8. Largest human car
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable The rotary clubs of Tiruchirapalli in India's southernmost state of Tamil Nadu organized an event where 1,660 participants got together for this huge formation. All participants wore black and green to create the image of a green car with black wheels and windows.
And as we draw curtains on the year, here's more to oddities!
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