• Guinness says the oldest living man is a 112-year-old British citizen
• Ram Sing Garr, born in 1905 according to his NID card, is much older

A Correspondent, Sreemangal:

In Sreemangal, Moulvibazar, there lives an elderly man whose age, according to his national identity card, is 119 years.

He is Ram Sing Garr, a resident of the remote border area of Mekani Chhara in Sreemangal.

According to the Guinness World Records, the world’s oldest living man is 112 years old, a British citizen named John Tinniswood, born on August 26, 1912. The Guinness World Records officially recognized him on February 5.

Now the Sreemangal administration is considering applying to Guinness authorities for the record if everything is confirmed.

Mekani Chhara village, where Ram lives, is about 40 kilometres from Sreemangal town, near the Tripura border. He resides in a pucca house built by a tea garden with his children and grandchildren.

Though weakened by age, Ram can still move around without assistance. He also does small chores at home and can read without glasses.

Collected image

RAM-SING-GARR-NID

Showing his national identity card, he told this correspondent that his date of birth was August 6, 1905, but he said he believed he might be even older than the age stated on the card.

FAMILY

According to Ram, his grandfather Shammi Garr and his maternal grandfather Halku Garr came to Bangladesh about 200 years ago from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India, as tea estate workers with his father, Buguram Garr.

He mentioned that his father got married after arriving here. “It was their hands that started tea cultivation in the region,” Ram claimed.

Ram said he got married a few years after the end of the First World War.

They had one daughter who passed away a few years ago due to old age.

He remarried after the death of his first wife and fathered five sons and three daughters. His eldest son passed away a few years ago at the age of 80.

MEMORIES

The centenarian said he vividly remembered hearing about World War I while working as a tea garden watchman. Ram said he had seen planes flying in the sky and had clear memories of World War II and the Partition of India.

Ram said he had many memories with the British officers, with whom he would often chat.

He studied up to the third grade at Victoria High School, Sreemangal’s oldest educational institution.

Back then, the school had a brick building on one side and a thatched house on the other. He lived with a Hindu family while studying there.

Sreemangal did not have paved roads back then. There were only a few brick buildings, including a bank, the house of one Ramratan Bania and the Tripura king’s bungalow.

Ram said sometimes the king of Tripura would come riding on an elephant to stay in the bungalow and collect taxes.

The tea gardens used to transport tea leaves by their own trolley, and Ram said he had witnessed the trolley line’s installation.

APPLYING TO GUINESS

Locals said Ram Sing’s peers had passed away long ago and the elderly had lived through several generations.

His family now includes the fourth generation, and they are all grown up.

Many in the area believe he is the world’s oldest man and want the authorities to apply to Guinness for this recognition.

“Ram Sing’s children were already married when I was very young. He still looks much like he did when I first saw him, healthy and strong, walking to the tea garden market on foot,” said Saraswati Garr, Ram Sing’s 80-year-old neighbour.

Medical examinations should be conducted before sending his name to Guinness, she added.

Meanwhile, local resident Niren Hadima, 80, said he saw Ram in an “elderly state” even when he joined work as a tea garden employee in 1961.

Sreemangal Upazila Nirbahi Officer Abu Taleb said he had already visited Ram Sing’s home and would ask the local social services officer to verify all information.

“If everything is in order, we will apply to Guinness through the district administration.”

Sreemangal Social Services Officer Md Shoaib Chowdhury said the administration was taking Ram’s case seriously.

Details about the date of birth listed on his NID card would be collected, he said. “A lot of information is required to apply to Guinness.”