Housekeeper creates largest ‘selfie stand’, record
LUCKNOW: A housekeeper at a prominent city hotel created the largest ‘selfie stand’ with waste material, thus making a grand entry into the record books.
Using waste bottles, worn-out tyres, old coolers, cold drink cans, scrap and old newspapers, Abhay Saxena, 27 made the ‘stand’ that India Book of Records — the keeper of Indian records for more than a decade — approved and issued a certificate to him at a function attended by mayor Sanyukta Bhatia on Friday.
Measuring 11 ft 7 inches high and 23 ft 10 inches wide, this huge ‘selfie stand’ was created to spread the message of a “Swacch Bharat” and that waste material can be recycled to be of use for households, said Tushar Chetwan, adjudicator for India Book of Records.
According to Abhay, “40 per cent of household waste material can be used for decorating interiors. It is how you look at the waste material. If you have a creative vision, nothing is waste. You can create art from it.”
It took Abhay 15 days to collect 2,500 kg waste material and garbage to build his ‘selfie stand’. “We went door-to-door and collected waste. It took my team 17 hours and 30 minutes to create the stand,” said Abhay, who build the stand at BBD Green City ground on Faizabad Road here.
The stand building work began on May 24 and ended in the early hours of May 25, he said.
“Apart from highlighting the ‘Clean India’ campaign, this stand aims to boost the morale of housekeepers who, I feel, don’t get their due status in society,” said Abhay.
Mayor Sayukta Bhatia appreciated Abhay and his team’s efforts for the ‘Swachh Bharat’ campaign. “She even clicked pictures with our ‘Selfie Stand’. She asked us to also involve school children in such initiatives,” said Abhay. Chairperson of BBD group Alka Das Gupta visited the site on May 24 while they were constructing the stand. “She has been a great motivational force,” said Abhay, a housekeeper at Hotel Fortune Park, BBD, Lucknow.
Abhay’s record making team included Koustav Ghosh, Ankit Bajpai, Mujib Ahmad, Bablu Suntia, Satyam Vij, Arvind Kumar, Jelius Nongrum, Rohit Verma, Mohd Subrate, Pinku Singh, Pankaj Singh, Amit Kumar Verma, Vishnu Soni, Mahesh Kumar, Amit Kumar, Pratap Singh, Rahul, Ashutosh Dwivedi and Anil Kumar.