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70-year-old Har Prakash, who has re-invented himself as Guinness Rishi |
Kathmandu:
An Indian businessman has been carrying the flags of 305 countries
on his own body to promote amity among nations. Now 70-year-old
Har Prakash, who has re-invented himself as Guinness Rishi, is
vying in Nepal for his latest world record, hoping to add more
flags and more records.
"People call me a joker, a mad man," says the world record
aspirant from New Delhi who arrived in Kathmandu to attend the
first international tattoo conference and promptly stole the
limelight from other younger participants from different countries
with more exotic tattoos.
"It doesn't bother me."
An auto parts manufacturer by profession, Guinness Rishi has two
passions - tattoos and Guinness world records.
His 22 records include such singular feats as making the longest
will in the world - a whopping 489 pages, delivering a pizza from
New Delhi to San Francisco, and, of course, carrying the highest
number of tattoos on his body.
These include 305 flags of different countries, 185 country maps,
165 mini flags and 2,985 characters.
"My dream is to go around the world several times," Har Prakash
told IANS, sitting in the convention hall of the Yak and Yeti
hotel while cameras click away furiously. "I want the children of
those countries to ask me, where is the flag of our country, spot
it and then, in the process, become aware of my country and other
countries as well."
While he is talking, Carlos Peres, a Venezuelan tourist, comes
looking for him. Peres saw Rishi's photograph in the papers and
brought along his friend from Argentina so that both could hunt
for their country's flags on the Indian's chest.
"There it is," the Argentine cries in glee and they shake hands
with Rishi, inviting him to visit their countries.
For such a serious tattoo record holder, Guinness Rishi started
quite late: it was in 2009 when he saw someone sporting country
flag tattoos and admired the effect.
He pays a tribute to Lokesh Verma, the 27-year-old founder of
Devilz Tattooz, who etched out seven tattoos on his forehead: the
flags of India, the US, the UK, Cyprus, Canada, the Congress party
and the Ripley's Believe It Or Not logo.
It took nine months and Verma did it free when he realised the
patriotic reason behind it, Rishi says.
However, his family reacted in an entirely different manner.
"My wife and sons told me they would never go to the market with
me or family weddings," he says, unrepentant. "But my customers
loved the tattoos - because they got a chance to laugh at me."
Rishi is now seeking to add a new tattoo record: have the maximum
number of tattoo artists work on him.
"The record is held by an American who in 1996 had 22 artists work
on him," he says. "As a matter of fact, I did break the record in
Pattaya last year when 25 artists etched 55 flags on me. But I was
not familiar with the rules and forgot to make a video recording."
This time, he has come armed and is asking the 52 tattoo stalls
put up for the Kathmandu conference to send one artist each to
doodle on him further.
However, while his forehead, head, arms, legs and chest are
covered with tattoos, his back remains pristine clear.
"I am saving that for a dream project," he says proudly. "It's
going to be the Hall of Fame for World Record holding tattoo
artists. I will have all their names and achievements tattooed on
my back."
(Sudeshna
Sarkar can be contacted at sudeshna.s@ians.in)
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