Kicker: Clipping record-setting nails

MEGAN BASHAM, HOST: An 82-year-old man from India named Shridhar Chillal recently clipped his fingernails.

Now, a man clipping his nails hardly sounds newsworthy, but these weren’t just any fingernails.

These were record-setters. He holds the Guinness World Record for longest nails on a single hand. His left thumbnail alone measured nearly 6-and-a-half feet long.

An official at the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Museum had to use a grinder to get the job done

AUDIO: Fingernail cut

He spent 66 years growing these things, which are now on display at the museum.

He started all this back in 1952! While playing around with a friend at school, he accidentally broke his teacher’s fingernail. The teacher told him he’d never understand what it was like to care for long nails … and that was the wrong thing to say.

Because young Shridhar took that as a challenge.

Today, he says cutting his record-setting talons was a “difficult decision,” but he’s happy that they’ll be on display for many years to come.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

(Photo/Ripley’s Believe It or Not!)

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.