Waghmare sings into record books

Sunil Waghmare, who has taken up the task of singing continuously for 101 hours, entered fourth day of singing on Thursday. He has already gone past the the world record held by Swaradhika Dhari of Ahmedabad.

Dhari had sung continuously for 82 hours 15 minutes establishing a world record. Now, Waghmare has broken that record and is approaching the target of 101 hours. Earlier, Rajesh Burbure from the city had sung for 80 hours and made set a record that was broken by Dhari shortly afterwards. Sunil went past Burbure's record at 7 pm on Thursday and that of Dhari at 9.15 pm.

There were amazing scenes at the Tilak Patrakar Bhavan, where Waghmare is singing, as the audience egged on the tired singer on to achieve this feat. A person sitting beside Waghmare sprayed water on his face and kept on poking him to help him stay awake.

Waghmare started singing at 11 am on Monday. He has dedicated his singing marathon to the singing legend Mohammad Rafi. His playlist includes most songs of Rafi though it also has popular hits of masters like Mukesh, Hemant Kumar and Kishore Kumar. He is going to sing over 150 songs if he goes on to achieve target.

"I think he will sing for at least 90 hours," said Anjan Pande who had come to see this spectacle. "His body language says that even after 82 hours, he is energetic enough to go on. He is smiling at the crowd and the crowd in turn is encouraging him. I hope he completes the 101 hours. That will be something," he said.

Musicians of Kala Sagar have made the base tracks of the songs Waghmare is singing. They have been compiled into one single track with a gap of 10 seconds between each song. Two cameras are running round the clock to capture this feat. The recorded video will be sent to Guiness Book of Records. Waghmare is set to complete the 101 on the afternoon of January 7.