World's longest selfie stick: MIT student Armaan may enter Guinness Book

Udupi, Apr 11: An attempt was made to enter the Guinness World Record by a student of Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT) by creating the world's longest selfie stick here on Monday.

Armaan, a student of sixth semester (B.Tech.) of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at MIT, created the longest selfie stick measuring 10.39 metres, which he demonstrated on the MIT grounds here. A selfie of the authorities of the MIT and others was taken on the occasion.

The present Guinness World Record holder for the world's longest stick is Ben Stiller (USA) for his selfie stick which measured 8.56 metres.

Mr. Stiller made this record at the premiere of Zoolander No. 2' in London, U.K., on February 4, 2016. The selfie taken included the stars of Zoolander No. 2' – Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Penelope Cruz, Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, Justin Theroux and Christine Taylor.

Mr. Armaan had sent an application to the Guinness World Records about two months ago for creating a new record in longest selfie stick. The application was accepted about a month ago. “After that I started working on it. I made around seven to eight trials,” he said. In the beginning, he created the selfie stick using a steel rod. But it was heavy. Then he used aluminium as it was lighter and stronger. “I was successful after using aluminium,” he said.

He practiced the use of the selfie stick for about a week. “If my present achievement is recognised, I will try doing a 12-metre long selfie stick,” he said.

Asked what inspired him to take to up this endeavour, he said, “When I saw Ben Stiller doing it. I thought even I could do it. That's how I started,” he said.

The demonstration of Mr. Armaan's longest selfie stick was photographed and video-graphed to be sent to Guinness World Records in the presence of six witnesses – S.J. Kumaraswamy, Deputy Superintendent of Police, G.K. Prabhu, Director of MIT, B.H.V. Pai, Joint Director, Narayan Shenoy, Associate Director, B.K. Singh, Professor of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, and Indrali Jayakar Shetty, General Manager of Badagabettu Credit Cooperative Society Ltd.

Mr. Armaan, son of Mohmed Soorinje and Rehana from Mangaluru, is also a member of the student team Formula Manipal' of MIT, which designs the formula racing car.