Shridhar Chillal, 78, has been growing the nails on his left hand since he was at school, and hasn’t trimmed them since 1952. That's before the first Guinness World Records book was even published.
Shridhar, who hails from Maharashtra, has now been officially recognised by Guinness as the person with the 'Longest Fingernails on a Single Hand Ever' and features in their 2016 edition.
When Sridhar was in school, he decided to grow his nails as a challenge.
"When I was a schoolboy, we were once beaten by our teacher, because my friend broke his nail. The teacher had grown a very long nail," he said.
When he asked the teacher why they were beaten for just 'breaking his nail,' the teacher said they would not understand as they had never grown long nails.
Shridhar 'took it as a challenge' and started growing his nails. His nails now have a cumulative length of 909.6cm. The most impressive is his thumbnail which measures an unbelievable 197.8 cm and curls into a tight coil at the end.
But it wasn't easy for Sridhar. He had to be very careful especially when sleeping: “I can’t move much, so every half an hour or so I wake up and move my hand to the other side of the bed.”
His family and friends didn't approve of it either.
"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," he said in an interview to the Guinness World Records when they visited him in Maharashtra.
Finding a wife for Sridhar was equally difficult.
"No one was ready to marry me, I saw nearly 10 to 12 girls. If the girl agreed to marry, her parents would say I would strangle their daughter’s neck and refuse," he said.
However, Sridhar may soon get rid of the world-record nails.
He plans to have his nails cut and have them preserved in a museum - but he's keeping the date of when this will happen a secret.
"Now that I am 78 years old, my nails have become much more delicate due to my age, so my wish is to preserve these nails in a museum," he said.
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