Mangalore, August 2: There are many people who are thirst to achieve special in this society, but only a few are truly unique in their words and actions. A driver and mechanic in profession, Anil Bangera (47), climbed the cradle of Limca book Book of India Records’ for de-husking of three coconuts in 4 minutes and 30 seconds in 1999.
For the Limca record, he had removed the husk of first coconut in 18 seconds, for the second, he took 1 minute and 30 seconds and he took 2 minutes and 30 seconds for third coconut. So far, he has de-husked more than 1,400 coconuts from his teeth. But his thirst for creating records has never quenched, hence his desire for a new record began with collecting otoliths, or in lay terms, ‘stones’ found in fish ear.
What are otoliths?
An otolith also called statoconium or otoconium is a structure in the utricle of the inner ear, specifically in the vestibular labyrinth of vertebrates. The saccule and utricle, in turn, together make the otolith organs. They are sensitive to gravity and linear acceleration.
Over the past five years Anil Bangera has collected 4,800 fish otoliths from various fish which he has eaten and he collected those while eating and 4,800 fishes eaten by him alone. He collected otholiths from fish like ‘Muru Menu’, ‘Kodai’, ‘Kalooru’, and ‘Nang’. Bangera is an aspirant for the Guinness Book of World Records and he is eager to collect 200 more otholiths to make it 5000, and when he achieves this target he will apply for the Limca Book of Records.
He also said that otoliths can be collected as precious stones for use in jewellery and he says the inspiration came from an incident. According to him they had a sickle at their home, but when that sickle loosed its wooden holder, his wife used to borrow from neighbour. Hence he thought to remove the husk through his teeth and from then he continued that habit, he said.
By: Saitsh Kapikad
