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A tongue twister's tale

DUBAI - Remember those days in school when you tried touching the tip of your nose with your tongue and couldn't?

Well, meet a man who can. Mohammed Rafi, an office assistant, can not only touch the tip of his nose with his tongue but can also roll it into any shape he wants - a flower, a shell, and even a boat!

Hailing from a small town in Kerala, Mohammed says that his talent is new found and that he only discovered it a few months ago while watching a magic show on TV.

"I was watching a magic show and saw this lady twist her tongue into a variety of shapes and sizes. I really liked what she was doing and tried it myself. To my surprise, my tongue was as flexible as hers and I could turn it into any shape I wanted without much effort," says Mohammed.

Soon, Mohammed was not only the talk of the town but even the district where he stayed in. "People were quite amazed by what I could do and news of it quickly reached people in other districts as well. My parents didn't believe me when I told them , but soon enough they could see it with their own eyes and are now quite proud of me," he says.

Mohammed is now attempting to gain an entry in the Guinness Book of Records in the category of 'Tongue magic' but says that he needs financial support for his endeavour.

"I have contacted the authorities about my entry but unfortunately, an attempt such as this means spending a lot of money and I really don't have much to do this and am appealing to anyone who can help me out," he says. Mohammed can twist his tongue at a 180 degrees angle, lengthen or shorten it and can even roll it inside out by flipping his entire tongue backwards. All this with no pain. Measuring 10 centimeters in length, doctors have assured Mohammed that his flexible tongue poses no hazard to his health and that it is a unique gift from God.

"I'm happy that I have this gift, but in all honesty, I'm just a normal person like anybody else and have my head firmly on my shoulder. And this does not change the fact that I still have to work hard and provide for my family back home," says the tongue twister