He has earned a place in the India Book of Records for typing all the 26 letters in alphabetical order without spaces in 2.16 seconds, and with spaces in 3.9 seconds.
He can type 80 words per minute at an accuracy rate of a stunning 95 per cent — much higher than the average 40 to 50 range.
Meet 25-year-old B.V.A. Manoj Varma Penmetsa, an advanced support engineer at IT giant Oracle in Bangalore. With an MCA from Vivekananda Institute of Technology and Science in Karimnagar, Andhra Pradesh, he left Hyderabad three months ago to work in Bangalore.
After setting the Indian record for the fastest typing of the alphabet from A to Z with and without spaces in March last year, he is now planning to break the Guinness World Record.
“My dream is to break the Guinness World Records for typing the alphabet with spaces, which currently stands at 3.43 seconds. Both of these categories fall under the ‘endurance’ section of the record book. Sadly, the record for typing the alphabet without spaces does not exist at the world level,” said Mr. Penmetsa.
Mr. Penmetsa has been practising typing for years, and has now decided to take on breaking two more records: the number of eggs held in one hand for 10 seconds (the record for which is 25) and the longest amount of time spent spinning the Guinness Book of World Records on one hand (which is around 40 minutes).
He was inspired to take on the challenge of breaking the Indian record for typing when he met Jayasimha of Jayasimha Mind Dynamics, who holds 24 Guinness World Records. Mr. Penmetsa completed a typewriting course in Class 11, and when he considered taking on the challenge of a national record for the first time in 2007, he decided to do it in typing. He then contacted T.C. Girivasan of Puducherry, who held the record at the time, and took advice on how to practise.
Performing under pressure
“Performing under pressure with the regulators and the press watching you is difficult,” he recalled. He is able to type faster than the official record, but the timing only counts as a record when it can be performed in person in front of officials, he explained. This was the challenge presented to him at the Press Club in Basheerbagh, Hyderabad, last year, and he will have to perform under the same nerve-wracking conditions in Bangalore soon.
In the future, Mr. Penmetsa hopes to set new world records in areas that do not currently exist: for example, typing the alphabet in reverse, or with a single hand.
