Judges' Scrutiny

The Great Wall of China was built as three separate walls in the
provinces of Zhao, Yan and Qin. The famed first emperor Qin Shihuang
after whom the country is named joined the three existing structures to
create a wall that covers 6700 km. It moves across deserts, grasslands,
mountains and plateaus. Though it is not known when the wall was
started its main purpose was to keep away northern invaders like Huns.
What we call the Great Wall today was chiefly built by the later Ming
dynasty.
From my childhood I used to read a lot of books. I read about various
people and the wonderful things they did. Some people climbed
mountains, some dived from them. Some people ran, others swam. There
were painters, there were singers and there were actors. Sadly I was
not talented in any way. I could neither write, nor act nor dance. I
was afraid of so many things that I could hardly expect to be an
adventurer. I passed all my exams with average marks and like many
cousins was set to study law, when, one day, I suddenly decided to
establish a record.
It was easier said than done. There are so many things to do in this
world. And the funny thing is, people are constantly trying to set new
standards for everything. I began exploring various ideas. I came to
the conclusion that for any record some resources would be needed. It
could be running shoes, tons of ice-cream or piles of bricks. I did not
have any money. What I however had was half of my grandfather's
property. The other half belonged to my father. My father was the
biggest manufacturer of silk scarves in the country. I spoke to him and
he was prepared to give me one million scarves in return for my share
of grandpa's property. But what could I possibly do with one million
silk scarves. I began to think. Being a boy, I had not been taught any
needlework. But I had some idea about sewing. As I watched a program
about tailoring on television an idea struck me. I brought all the
record books from the library and began to check. Well, no one had
attempted the record before. My idea was this. I would sew the one
million scarves I had, end to end. My endeavour would be to create the
largest ever sheet of cloth made up of a million scarves sewn together.
I was not sure I would be able to do it but I would try my
hardest.
I started work the next day. I purchased a very good sewing machine and
started working in my study. The room was quite large and as the size
of the sheet grew it began to fill up. I started with two hundred
scarves per day. I picked up speed as the days went by. I slept barely
four hours a day and lost a lot of weight. In one year half the job was
done. I now worked in a local soccer ground. I put up a tent on one
side and lived there. The sewing machine I used now was better and
faster. I loved my work because I was facing a
self-imposed challenge. I aimed to finish within two years. And I
did.
One million silk scarves were now sown side to side. The sheet of cloth
thus created was really big. The people who recognize and encourage
unusual records like mine visited the stadium. There seemed to be one
problem. The sheet had to spread out on something to check for any gaps
or holes. The stadium was not big enough for this. In fact no place in
India could be used to examine the sheet. There was only one place in
the whole world which could be used for the purpose. The Great Wall of
China. The longest man-made erect structure in the whole world. Only
the Wall was tall and long enough to enable the scrutinizers to see the
scarves together at one go. Well, we took the next flight to China. A
huge cargo plane had to be booked for the scarves. The fruit of my
labour , a sheet of one million beautiful scarves joined together was
stretched over the Great Wall of China from the city of Linzhao. Well,
no gaps or defects were detected and I was given a certificate stating
all details of my new record.