The man with 17 records, the most held by an Indian

A few years ago, somebody told Ramkumar Sarangpani, 41, that world records were only for superhumans. Challenge accepted, he said.

Since 2017, this UAE resident has set 18 Guinness world records, and still holds 17 of them — more than any other Indian.

Last year he set 13. One each for world’s smallest playing cards (three times smaller than a nano SIM card), the largest sentence formed with bank notes (he wrote “GWR DAY 2020”; GWR for Guinness World Record, using 5,005 Re 1 notes), and longest line of plastic cards, arranged to form the flag of his adopted country, UAE.

“I love working on themes that speak of ‘largest’ and the ‘longest’ simply because it connects with Dubai, a city dotted with massive structures,” Sarangpani says.

His first record formed the world’s longest chain of magnets (50,201 cubes stretched over 500 metres). It took two hours. He’s also created the world’s largest greeting card (made for the 49th UAE National Day) and its largest playing card (a King of Hearts 1,041 times the size of a standard one).

His aim now is to break 100 world records. “I want to convey that it takes no superpowers, just ingenuity, innovation and determination to reach your goal,” he says.