MUMBAI: Shridhar Chillal from Pune, who holds the world record for longest nails has finally decided to cut them down and honouring his wish, a museum in the US has agreed to preserve them.
1938 born Chillal began growing nails on his left hand in 1952 after one of his teachers beat him up for breaking his long nail. After about 64 years, when he had grown his nails to a total length of 909.6 centimeters (9.1 metres), in 2016 Chillal's name was registered in the Guinness book of World records for having 'Longest Fingernails on a Single Hand Ever'.
Chillal's longest single nail - the thumbnail - alone measures 197.8 centimeters. He had expressed a wish to preserve the nails in some museum while speaking after his entry into the Guinness book of world records.
Chillal, suffered several difficulties due to the long nails before the same nails fetched him the world record. Apart from difficulties in finding a job and difficulties in finding a wife, he also had to follow several restraints in day-to-day life like restrictions on movement due to the length of his nails.
However, Chillal would be free from these difficulties today as at a special ceremony at the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum in Times Square of New York, the nails would be clipped down.
The Museum specially flew him from Pune for the ceremony. Chillal's wish that his cut nails be immortalised in a museum was responded positively by the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum.