On fire: 17-year-old record breaker is no flash in the pan

Jawwad Gaba attempts to set world record by spinning a frying pan for 30 mins, 34 secs.

KARACHI:

Like a savvy basketball player, Jawwad Iqbal Gaba spun a 12-inch non-stick frying pan for 30 minutes and 34 seconds, setting what appeared to be a new world record on Saturday.

The 17-year-old said he was very nervous as he was not used to media attention. Television and print media turned up at the Expo centre to watch him perform. But when he got on stage, he seemed calm and collected. The engineering student had a game plan to avoid any distraction — he would focus on music. He had synchronised the spinning with music on his mp3 player that he was hooked up to with earplugs. The music was perfectly timed to the record, ending just so that he knew he had broken the previous one of 17 minutes, 47 seconds. The music also helped him keep rhythm.

Before the spinning spree began, children were sent on stage to check whether his frying pan was real or not. The judges saw it through that the pan was measured and the stopwatch was reset.

During Jawwad’s endeavour, people applauded at every passing minute after the initial 17 minutes.

But the organisers kept hushing them to not clap until he was done.

When the host announced that the world record was beaten, Jawwad dedicated a song to his mother as he continued to spin the frying pan. The host decided to sing.

On why did he continue spinning for an extra 17 minutes, he said he wanted to make sure it was hard for anyone to beat the record.

When the feat was completed, the crowd jumped on stage, lifted and tossed him in the air to celebrate. Meanwhile, some of the greedy ones tried to grab hold of the star frying pan to take home as a souvenir.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2011.