Customs puts it on record, installs Surinder Singh Azad’s photo in Attari for his feats

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 5

Octogenarian Surinder Singh Azad, a former employee of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), has got reasons to rejoice. His name in the record books has brought him the rare distinction of getting his photographs installed at Customs offices at Attari border and in city. Azad earned name and fame, hitting the headlines time and again, by registering his name in Limca Book of Records and the department has been magnanimous by acknowledging his feat.

A retired Superintendent of Customs and Excise Department, Azad walks 10 kilometre daily and has set numerous records in unusual activities, including chest expansion by 7.3 inches, published in this newspaper on May 19, 1971. He says the desire to do something exceptional made him do different exercises like bench press, push-ups and sit-ups daily. One day, he happened to measure his chest and came to realise that it was an exceptional gift.

He had ventured on his scooter from Amritsar to Pinjore and back, covering 534 km in 1993. Records like snapping fingers and clapping may sound comical, but he strove to achieve them. In 1997, his two records were registered — one for clapping 12,178 times and the other for snapping his fingers 11,510 times in an hour each. He snapped his fingers 290 times in a minute, which paved the way for a sixth record. His seventh record even baffled the engineers at Bajaj Auto Ltd as he had driven his scooter for 70 km in one litre. He created his eighth record by driving the slowest scooter ever in fourth gear, i.e., 2.35 km per hour, while the ninth followed for driving the scooter (no shift in gear) with 10 pillion riders.

In 2000, his twin records of rotating the wrist 292 times in one minute and rotating his arm 136 times in a minute raised the number of records to 11.

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