Guwahati: The Assamese people have suddenly found a new zest to set world records, from running barefoot to walking backwards, from planting trees to dancing in the largest troupe – the state and its people have fixed their eyes on entering the records book.
While Abhijit Barua of Jorhat set the ball rolling early this year by running the longest distance ever barefoot, the latest attempt at entering the records book has again been made at Jorhat when thousands of traditionally-attired men and women played, sang and danced Bihu together on Sunday.
In between these two records, a Nalbari youth walked backwards to get his name into record books, while civilians and army men joined hands in planting most number of saplings in Kokrajhar in an hour.
In the latest attempt to create a new world record, as many as 2265 people performed Bihu at the Court Field in Jorhat yesterday.
Most of the participants were students from schools in and around Jorhat, an upper Assam district headquarter.
The attempt was to enter the India Book of Records and the Asia Book of Records, and the entire event, which ran for close to 22 minutes, was video-taped and recorded by the North-East observer of these record books.
A Jorhat lad, Abhijit Barua, had started the fad of attempting to enter the record books this year when he had ran a distance of 156.2 km barefoot in 24 hours in Jorhat on January 30 this year.
An Assam Police constable, Abhijit’s attempt was recognized by the Guinness Book of Records last month.
Emulating Abhijit, Nalbari youth Babu Purushuttam Das walked backwards a distance of over 90 km in 24 hours in his native town on May 6.
The proceedings of the event were recorded by Das’ friends and well-wishers and have been sent to record books’ authorities for formal recognition.
Not to be left behind, the Indian Army, in collaboration with other agencies, also attempted to set a new Guinness record of planting the maximum number of trees by 100 men within an hour on the banks of Saralbhanga river near Chirang reserve forest on April 29 last. The Army’s Dogra Regiment at Kokrajhar, the state Forest department and 135 Ecological Territorial Army Battalion made this attempt at Khalasi, near Jharbari, where 100 volunteers, including Army men and Haltugaon Division Forest Department officials planted 40,885 saplings in one hour to establish a new Guinness Record. (UNI)