For the past 25 years, Mani
Manithan has been walking backwards in a bizarre bid to achieve world
peace. He started in 1989, after a string of violent incidents in his
home country India shocked him. Now he says that he’s gotten so used to
it that he couldn’t walk straight even if he wanted to!
Manithan sells mobile phones for a living in Agraharam village,
in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Since June 14, 1989, he has been
breaking various records in walking backwards – all in an effort to
achieve world peace. One of his very first acts after taking his vow was
to walk backwards 300 miles, unclad, all the way from his village to
Chennai city.
“On the international level, terrorism has increased, so
many blasts are happening, the youth are misguided,” he said. “To
condemn such incidents I have been walking backwards for 25 years. My
only agenda is world peace,” he added.
Of course, Manithan has achieved little success – nothing
has really changed due to his strange style of walking. But he isn’t one
to give up. He has vowed not to stop until the world is a peaceful
place to live in. “My life has been full of struggles, sacrifice,
achievements and protest so I have no issue continuing my backward
walking until we achieve world peace,” he said.
The man really does walk backwards
everywhere – at home, on the streets and even while climbing stairs or
using public transport. He’s pretty much perfected the art of looking
behind his shoulder while walking; it’s a wonder that he hasn’t injured
himself once in all these years. He says that it doesn’t affect his
normal routine in any way, and in fact he has completely forgotten how
to walk forwards.
“Walking normally is more of a
challenge – my mind has forgotten how to do it,” he said. “I have become
very comfortable walking like this.”
