Children should be taught to respect other faiths: Trichur Nazir

He comes across as someone ‘different’, as is every Guinness World record holder. Playing the mouth organ and performing mimicry for long hours is his forte. Trichur Nazir, the Guinness world record holder for playing the mouth organ for 101 hours continuously entertains crowds who come to watch his shows. But more than entertainment, the man intends to spread communal harmony in his own way.

In a casual tete a tete with Coastaldigest.com while he was in Mangalore to perform a 24 hour show, Mr. Nazir said spreading communal harmony remains his prime objective. “We all are human beings and we all are brothers. Our blood is the same. There is no need to fight in the name of religion and the world is a better place when people live in harmony. In my own troupe there are people of other faiths but we perform as one. We dine in each other’s houses and live like brothers” says Mr. Nazir.

Mr. Nazir has been performing for years and traveled to various parts of the country to perform in shows. Interestingly, Mr. Nazir says he makes sure that he performs in cities and places which are considered communally sensitive and hence visited Mangalore. “I have performed in places like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and other cities of the country. I try to visit communally sensitive areas and perform there. Thalassery was one such region but ever since I performed there, no communal violence has taken place” he quips.

Kerala as a whole is not a communal state, says Mr. Nazir. “Only border towns of Kerala such as Mangalore and Kasaragod are communally sensitive. Overall, Kerala boasts of great religious harmony. It is in fact the first state in the country which welcomed Islam, whether it was in the form of the king who set out to visit Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) or greats like Maalik Dinaar (ra)”, says Mr. Nazir.

Communal harmony has got to do a lot with how people bring up their children according to Mr. Nazir. “Parents have to bring up children teaching them to respect other faiths. A lot depends on how they bring them up. It is disheartening to see teens roaming around with knives and displaying rude attitude. This only happens when children are not controlled by parents. Also, organisations that spread violence must be banned. Organisations must only be allowed to exist if they carry out social service work”, says he.

Another key to maintaining communal harmony, Mr. Nazir feels is minding one’s own business. “Why do you have to poke your nose into somebody else’s business? You follow your religion and let others follow theirs. If everyone starts thinking this way, communal harmony will automatically come about”, he says.

Mr. Nazir also holds the record for performing mimicry continuously for 40 hours. He not only excels in mimicking voices of film actors, but also makes an attempt to look like some of them, his favourite being Kerala cine star Mohanlal. He has performed in Gulf countries too. He performs in Air Arabia flights from Mumbai to Sharjah thrice in a week. Mr. Nazir is good at hand shadows as well.

He first entered the Limca Book of World Records in 1990 for his non-stop mimicry performance. In 1992 at New Delhi, he entered the Guinness Book of World Records for his 40 hour non-stop mimicry followed by 101 hours of continuous mouth organ performance in 2005 in Mumbai.

It all started when he was in a school going kid, says Mr. Nazir. "I managed to get the Chinese ‘Hero’ mouth organ and started playing. Some of the earliest tunes that I played include Saare Jahaan Se Achha and melodies of Yesudas. I kept setting goals and things gradually happened" says he.

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