SURUNGA, NEPAL // Pilloried by neighbours, laughed at in freakshows and spurned by the women he admired from afar, Chandra Bahadur Dangi has always seen his tiny stature as a curse.
But the 72-year-old Nepali, who claims to stand at just 56 centimetres, is on the brink of life change as significant as a lottery win as experts prepare to test his claim to be the shortest man in history.
Until now, Junrey Balawing from the Philippines has held the title of the world's smallest living man with a height of 59.93cm.
Guinness World Records experts confirmed last week they are to travel to Dangi's village in the impoverished south-western valleys of Dang district to measure the pensioner, who says he weighs just 12 kilos. If his measurements prove correct, he would be smaller than Mr Balawing but would also be the shortest human adult ever documented, taking the accolade from India's Gul Mohammed, who was measured at 57cm before he died in 1997 aged 40.
Mr Dangi said in his first interview with western media that recognition at the end of his life would be some compensation for years of hardship he has had to endure.
"I think things will be better now. I hope that I will be famous all over the world," Mr Dangi said at a religious festival in Surunga, a town on the banks of the sacred Kankai river 280 kilometres south-east of Kathmandu.
"I want to visit foreign countries and meet people from around the world."
The pensioner, who was orphaned at 12 and has five normal-sized brothers, says he has never experienced romance and is yet to find his soulmate.
"I was short since my childhood. So, I couldn't find a woman to marry when I was young. Then I just gave up on the idea of marriage. At this old age, I'm not interested in marriage anymore."
The cause of his stunted growth remains a mystery although many holders of the "world's shortest man" crown have suffered from primordial dwarfism, a condition that begins to show signs in the womb.
Mr Dangi says relatives would parade him as a freak at fetes and festivals when he was younger, refusing to share with him any of the cash they earned.
"They would treat me as a toy," he told the Kathmandu-based Republica newspaper.
Mr Dangi, who scrapes a living weaving the "Naamlo", a traditional jute band used for carrying heavy weights, has already become something of a celebrity in southern Nepal.
Six large-scale objects on show
- Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
- The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
- A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
- A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
- Torrijos Palace dome
Reputation
Taylor Swift
(Big Machine Records)
It’ll be summer in the city as car show tries to move with the times
If 2008 was the year that rocked Detroit, 2019 will be when Motor City gives its annual car extravaganza a revamp that aims to move with the times.
A major change is that this week's North American International Auto Show will be the last to be held in January, after which the event will switch to June.
The new date, organisers said, will allow exhibitors to move vehicles and activities outside the Cobo Center's halls and into other city venues, unencumbered by cold January weather, exemplified this week by snow and ice.
In a market in which trends can easily be outpaced beyond one event, the need to do so was probably exacerbated by the decision of Germany's big three carmakers – BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi – to skip the auto show this year.
The show has long allowed car enthusiasts to sit behind the wheel of the latest models at the start of the calendar year but a more fluid car market in an online world has made sales less seasonal.
Similarly, everyday technology seems to be catching up on those whose job it is to get behind microphones and try and tempt the visiting public into making a purchase.
Although sparkly announcers clasp iPads and outline the technical gadgetry hidden beneath bonnets, people's obsession with their own smartphones often appeared to offer a more tempting distraction.
“It's maddening,” said one such worker at Nissan's stand.
The absence of some pizzazz, as well as top marques, was also noted by patrons.
“It looks like there are a few less cars this year,” one annual attendee said of this year's exhibitors.
“I can't help but think it's easier to stay at home than to brave the snow and come here.”
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