ENARADA , Bangalore, September 16, 2013:
By C D Souza
His email id reads as recordrameshbabu@yahoo.com and naturally with 47 world records and 9 national records to his credit there is every possibility that Prof Dr Ramesh Babu, a metallurgical scientist based in Bengaluru will be nicknamed as above in the near future.
At 57, Dr Ramesh exhibits a dogged fervor to achieve more world records in diverse fields to add to the present 57 (same as his age), the highest ever achieved by an Indian. On September 14, 2013 Dr Ramesh added one more record to his kitty – fastest sandwiches making in one hour where he made 4O8 sandwiches in the stipulated time and created a world record at a function held at Vidyanjali Academy in Bengaluru.
Dr Ramesh Babu who had his doctorate from Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru and is the founder director of “Top of the World” centre for Excellence, had a penchant for doing things differently.
He created his first world record in 1993 and since then has been creating records in diverse fields such as longest rallies in sports, Marathon solo basketball, fastest cucumber cutting, fastest single leg skipping – to name a few and the list goes on.
Dr Ramesh says “from my childhood I was interested in various sports and games and wanted to excel in whatever I do. These records are nothing but the continuation of the fervor I had for doing thing differently”.
There has been no financial gain for Dr Ramesh from the records he has created. Rather he has to spend money from his own pocket as it is difficult to find sponsors for his records.
For the sandwich record Dr Ramesh was lucky as Vidyanjali Academy for Learning, Bengaluru, had come forward to sponsor the event. Even his family is not very keen in Dr Ramesh spending his time, energy and resources on creating records. But this has not deterred him from continuing what he loves the most – trying to achieve perfection and then going for new records.
Dr Ramesh Babu, however, says it is not a cakewalk to create records. “It calls for practice and scientific analysis. Being a scientist I am able to have a scientific approach to the fields I attempt to create records and that has been my major strength”, he recounts.
He attributes his success or records to the scientific approach he uses, the practice, his stamina and power of endurance and physical fitness. For example for the recent record of making 408 sandwiches in an hour he had practiced relentlessly for 1 ½ months. The duration of practice, however, varies from event to event and some event call for minimum practice.
His fitness regime also varies depending on the fields he chooses for his record-breaking feat. If he has to go for a record involving the maximum use of his wrists, he gives lot of exercises for his wrists, he says bubbling with energy.
Apart from adhering to a strict regimen of practice creating world records involves lot of paper work such as sending proposals to the various agencies like Limca Book of Records or India Book of Records and other such agencies which registers such national and world record breaking events and other communication required for recognizing the feat as a record.
Even before creating the new record of fastest sandwiches in one hour on September 14, 2013, Dr Ramesh had already prepared the ground for his next record and has started his practice vigorously. Going by the speed with which he is going one can say he is going to hit a century of records soon.
