<p>Look at your hands. Try pushing your fingers backwards. They won’t go beyond the 10 degree mark. This is because they have bones.They’re hard and made of calcium. One meeting with 18-year-old Maria Pramod and you realise that this doesn’t hold true for him. <br /><br />This young man can bend all 10 of his fingers and his toes backwards. A full 180 <br />degrees, well almost. As if <br />this wasn’t enough, he can pull out his cornea too. Why would he, you ask? “It makes me unique. Special among my friends. I don’t want to be like everybody else,” says Pramod, who is aiming for the Guinness world record.<br /><br />“I could bend my right index finger all the way back when I was in the first standard. By the time, I was in third standard, I could bend all my fingers on my right hand. And by the time I was in 10th standard, I could not only bend all my fingers but all my toes and I could pull out my cornea as well,” he says proudly. <br /><br />What about his doctors, what do they say? “All my medical reports are normal. The doctors ask me to not do it. They say if I give it up, my bones will get harder. I tried that but it didn’t work. They also say I could lose my sight but I’ve been doing this for years and nothing has happened. <br /><br />Even my mother doesn’t want me to do it. I do it anyway,” he informs.<br /><br />Asked if he wasn’t worried and why would he risk his health, he says, “people treat me with respect. My school principal used to treat me badly, but once my name started coming out in the newspapers, he turned nice. If I win the world record, then I’ll feel like I have achieved something,” he says. “Everybody who sees me do it, gets afraid. But I won’t give up until I have achieved my goal,” says this determined young man and that seems to be the last word on the subject.</p>
<p>Look at your hands. Try pushing your fingers backwards. They won’t go beyond the 10 degree mark. This is because they have bones.They’re hard and made of calcium. One meeting with 18-year-old Maria Pramod and you realise that this doesn’t hold true for him. <br /><br />This young man can bend all 10 of his fingers and his toes backwards. A full 180 <br />degrees, well almost. As if <br />this wasn’t enough, he can pull out his cornea too. Why would he, you ask? “It makes me unique. Special among my friends. I don’t want to be like everybody else,” says Pramod, who is aiming for the Guinness world record.<br /><br />“I could bend my right index finger all the way back when I was in the first standard. By the time, I was in third standard, I could bend all my fingers on my right hand. And by the time I was in 10th standard, I could not only bend all my fingers but all my toes and I could pull out my cornea as well,” he says proudly. <br /><br />What about his doctors, what do they say? “All my medical reports are normal. The doctors ask me to not do it. They say if I give it up, my bones will get harder. I tried that but it didn’t work. They also say I could lose my sight but I’ve been doing this for years and nothing has happened. <br /><br />Even my mother doesn’t want me to do it. I do it anyway,” he informs.<br /><br />Asked if he wasn’t worried and why would he risk his health, he says, “people treat me with respect. My school principal used to treat me badly, but once my name started coming out in the newspapers, he turned nice. If I win the world record, then I’ll feel like I have achieved something,” he says. “Everybody who sees me do it, gets afraid. But I won’t give up until I have achieved my goal,” says this determined young man and that seems to be the last word on the subject.</p>
