Indian man slices, dices his way into record books

Ramesh practiced for more than a year to beat the record

Cuts cucumber into 120,000 pieces

April 7, 1998
Web posted at: 8:34 a.m. EDT (1234 GMT)

BANGALORE, India (CNN) -- It's Sunday, you're in Bangalore, India, and you've got nothing better to do -- so you cut a cucumber into 120,000 pieces.

At least, if you're S. Ramesh Babu that's what you do.

A scientist in this southern Indian city, Ramesh achieved his 13th world record Sunday by cutting a 12 3/4-inch (32 centimeter) cucumber into 120,000 pieces in less than three hours.

Ramesh, who practiced for more than a year for this day, followed a procedure laid out in a complex set of diagrams designed for the project.

He took off his watch and set it to one side near a copy of the Guinness Book of Records. Seated to his left were two men with pencil, paper, calculator and a couple of platters for the arduous task of counting the pieces.

Watch the master at work
	1.2MB/21 sec./240x180 763K/21 sec./160x120 QuickTime movie

Dozens of people watched from chairs placed around the perimeter of the room as the meticulous work began.

Ramesh began by carefully cutting the cucumber into 79 slices. Each slice was then painstakingly cut into extremely narrow strips that were, in turn, reduced to tiny bits at a rate of about 2,500 bits per slice.

Ramesh took two hours and 24 minutes to cut 100,000 bits from 59 slices. He went on to cut the remaining 20 slices in 21 minutes for a total of 120,000 pieces.

---

 

---

Sound off on our message boards & chat

© 1998 Cable News Network, Inc.
A Time Warner Company
All Rights Reserved.

Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.