Cut Them off and Will Now Have Them Displayed

Many lifelong passions start in childhood. When parents see a son or daughter take a shine to art, or music, or sports, they wonder if it will stick with them.
Shridhar Chillal began a sort of hobby when he was very young, but it started because of a correction and an unintentional challenge.

“When I was a schoolboy,” he said, “we were once beaten badly by our teacher, because my friend broke his nail. The teacher had grown a very long nail.”

“We asked him why he had beaten us so much just for breaking his nail. He said that we would not understand as we had never grown long nails.”



“Unless we grew long nails, we would never understand the kind of care required not to break them,” Chillal continued. “After that we took it as a challenge and started to grown our own nails.”

It wasn’t easy, the path Chillal had chosen. As the people around him started to see that he was serious about his fascination with maintaining long nails, others began to ostracize him.



“As the nails grew, the problems started to increase,” he admitted. “First our family members opposed, then teachers were opposed, but I decided from that point on I would never cut my nails again.”

“Initially, difficulties appeared everywhere in my daily life. My family really didn’t like it. No one would wash my clothes, and I had to wash them by hand.”



“Finding a job was also difficult, as no one was ready to employ me. When I was to get married, no one was ready to marry me, I saw nearly 10-12 girls. If the girl agreed to marry, her parents would say I would strangle their daughter’s neck and refuse.”

He laughed as he recalled the memories. “If the parents agreed, the girl would say she would not marry such a dirty person,” he continued. “Finally, I got married to my elder brother’s sister-in-law at the age of 29.”

Life wasn’t easy for Chillal, who even had to sleep carefully so as not to damage his nails. In an interview with Inside Edition, his granddaughter said that whenever his nails grew out, he would fill them with a solution, which helped strengthen them.


Chillal started out on this odd journey in 1952. At the age of 82, after 66 years of growing out his nails, he felt quite accomplished.

“After being recognized by Guinness World Records, I felt like I had achieved the biggest goal in my life,” he said. “And now I can tell people wherever I go with pride about my title.”

Will you be taking a trip to see the world’s longest fingernails in person?

Not everyone makes it into the Guinness Book of World Records, but not everyone is thrilled with Chillal’s achievement either. It’s an impressive feat whether or not you’re a fan of the talon-like nails, spiraling into what look like Bighorn Sheep horns.

The combination of their weight and the amount of time Chillal has gone without moving his left hand has rendered it permanently handicapped, according to Guinness World Records. He cannot open his hand or flex his fingers.

“I am in pain,” he said. “With every heart beat all five fingers, my wrist, elbow and shoulder are hurting a lot and at the tip of the nail there’s a burning sensation always.”

According to The Guardian, after 66 years, Chillal was finally a free man. His nails were measured, cut with a power tool, and then displayed in New York at Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, and he is now the (proud?) recipient of a World Record.

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