World’s longest fingernails go on display in New York museum
SHRIDHAR Chillal, who has the Guinness World Record for having the longest fingernails on a single hand, at almost 200cm, has had them trimmed. The 82-year-old Indian’s nails were put on display recently after a ceremony at Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! museum in New York’s Times Square.
“For 66 years I lived for my fingernails,” Chillal said with some help from his granddaughter for translation. “Now I’m really happy that everyone can see them.”
His nails were cut at a medical surgery a few days beforehand. Chillal said that he was getting old and life with his nails had become too difficult.
And while he missed his nails, having them cut off had also been a liberation, he said. Chillal had been growing his nails since 1952, and they were entered into the Guinness Book of Records in 2014. He used to clean them once a week, and when he slept he used a special cushion and woke up regularly to check on them.
Despite his unusual decision, he is married, has several children and managed to work as a photographer for years using just his right hand, the nails of which he kept trimmed. The long-term weight of the nails on his left hand means it is now deformed and he cannot open it.
Chillal began growing his nails after a schoolyard incident – he and his friends ran into a teacher and broke off the long nail of the teacher’s little finger, for which he was scolded.
“I don’t know if this teacher is still alive,” Chillal said. “But if he is, I would like to tell him that I took what he swore at me to heart. I made a challenge out of it – and I was successful.”