Dying for a record

One can be forgiven for believing that Malaysians in general love the idea of setting records for all kinds of imaginable feats. We have our very own Malaysian Book of Records, some of the entries make for good reading if you are looking for some laughs.

On the other hand, if Mr Nadeswaran of theSUN had his way, he would have entered a few other listings as well involving the feats executed by some of our politicians and "little napoleons" which really deserve a round of applause from Malaysians for their daring and audacity.

But in general, I believe most Malaysians who took the trouble to assemble the longest pizza, weave the biggest ketupat casing, pull the longest glass of teh-tarik, or sew the biggest Jalur Gemilang do so more for the fun of participating in a community project and getting some cheap publicity in the process. Sekadar main-main saja, kan?

And, I believe no Malaysian has ever taken the whole thing too seriously enough to warrant killing himself/herself over a failed attempt to get a mention in the book of records, be it the Malaysian version or the much more esteemed Guinness Book of World Records.

Thus, I read with sadness the brief report on page 11 from today's theSUN free paper where an Indian youth killed himself after failing to set a record number of push-ups.

NEW DELHI: A student in India attempting to perform a record number of push-ups has killed himself because he was unable to enter the Guinness Book of World Records, a news report said yesterday.

Satheeswaran, a 19-year-old resident of Tamil Nadu state, committed suicide on Monday, saying he was taking his life as he could not achieve anything "great", the Times of India daily reported. The report did not mention how the boy took his life.

Satheeswaran, who had made it to India's Limca Book of Records for 141 non-stop push-ups with palms facing upwards, was disappointed ever since his attempt to enter the Guinness Book last year by doing 144 push-ups in front of local authorities, went unacknowledged. - dpa

How unfortunate it is that this young man should have been so misguided as to believe that he would have achieved "greatness" if he could just get a mention in a record book.

Mayhaps a better sense of humour would have saved his life?