IIM eyes record with giant red ribbon made of condom packs!
LUCKNOW: To drive home the importance of use of contraceptive methods in preventing AIDS, budding managers of the Indian Institute of Management-Lucknow (IIML) on Sunday set about a unique task — something that may also land them in the prestigious Guinness Book of World Records.
Displaying their out-ofthe-box thinking, the student made what they claimed to be the World’s largest red ribbon — the AIDS awareness symbol — with condom packets. They gave shape to the feat in collaboration with the UP State Aids Control Society (UPSACS) on the concluding day of IIM’s annual fest INDEX, of which Hindustan Times was the media partner.
In line with Guinness authorities’ ‘two colour’ mandate, the students made the background out of blue condom packets while the ribbon was made of red packets, both of which were neatly laid on a tiled patch at the Moti Mahal lawn.
The participants, who included students of other colleges as well, claimed to have broken the previous record of a similar ribbon made in Hong Kong by a huge margin.
“The previous record was of a 3.5feet X 6.5feet ribbon made of 685 packets of condom. But here, we have used 4,418 condom packs to make a ribbon of the size 20feet x10feet,” said Dr Sangeeta Pandey, joint director of UPSACS. “It took nearly three hours to complete the exercise. The participating teams made all efforts to stick to the guidelines sent by the Guinness authorities,” she added. However, there wasn’t any representative of the Guinness Book present during the event.
“There are two conditions for the record: Either you call a representative of the Guinness Book or carry out aerial recording of the entire process in the presence of a notary and a gazetted officer. We chose the latter,” said Swati, a student volunteer at INDEX.
Officials from the UPSACS said that since condoms were easily available everywhere, they were trying to spread awareness on their use. The students, on their part, had a gala time preparing the ribbon. “Pasting nearly 4500 packets of condoms wasn’t an easy task, but together it was a fun activity and we managed to do it,” said a participant of the record making exercise, which also drew a lot of onlookers who wanted to be a part of the feat. In addition, a ‘nukkad natak’ contest was held on the occasion at the venue.