Move aside PM Modi, city’s Azad is man with the broadest chest

Neeraj Bagga

Amritsar, February 8

After having set numerous records in unusual activities in the last five decades, octogenarian Surinder Singh Azad is now collecting news highlighting his feat.

His first news of chest expansion by 7.3 inches had been published in this newspaper on May 19, 1971. Another news in these columns appeared on December 21, 1972. News of his feat was also published in other dailies of the country and abroad.

Can expand his chest by 9 inches

• Surinder Singh Azad’s first news of chest expansion by 7.3 inches had been published in this newspaper on May 19, 1971. Another news in these columns appeared on December 21, 1972. News of his feat was also published in other dailies of the country and abroad
• Azad developed a penchant for setting records when he learnt that he could expand his chest by nine inches (22.8 cm). The normal expansion is not more than 6.3 cm. Limca Book of Records acknowledged his feat in 1990. This recognition nurtured in him a desire to do more such extraordinary things
• Though records like snapping fingers and clapping may sound amusing and comical, he says he has put in his efforts to do so. He has not let advancing age get the better of him. A retired Superintendent of Customs and Excise Department, Azad walks 10 kilometre daily
• Looking back at his eventful career, 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. For him, the mantra is to make something out of nothing

Azad developed a penchant for setting records when he learnt that he could expand his chest by nine inches (22.8 cm). The normal expansion is not more than 6.3 cm. Limca Book of Records acknowledged his feat in 1990. This recognition nurtured in him a desire to do more such extraordinary things.

Though records like snapping fingers and clapping may sound amusing and comical, he says he has put in his efforts to do so. He has not let advancing age get the better of him. A retired Superintendent of Customs and Excise Department, Azad walks 10 kilometre daily.

Looking back at his eventful career, 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 gradually came to realise that it was an exceptional gift.

He had ventured on his scooter from Amritsar to Pinjore and back, covering 534 km. That was in 1993.

For him, the mantra is to make something out of nothing. Records like snapping fingers and clapping may sound comical, 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 a litre. It seems he really liked his scooter, for it piled on more records. 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 passengers.

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.