K Praveen, a 21-year-old man from Thiruthangal in Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu, has a 10.8-centimeter-long tongue, according to the India Book of Records.

According to the University of Edinburgh, the average human male tongue is around 8.5-cm-long, which makes K Praveen’s tongue over 2.5cm longer, and probably the longest in the world. The young robotics student has known that his tongue was longer than usual ever since he started showing friends and family what he could do with it… And by that we mean touching the tip of his nose and his elbow with it, and almost touching his eyes. Due to a lack of funds, he has not been able to get his tongue officially measured by Guinness Records, but he did get his name in India’s own Limca Book of Records, for having the longest tongue in the country.

A couple of years ago, Praveen managed to get his name in the Asia Book of Records for touching his nose with his tongue 219 times in a minute. Apparently, he has also trained himself to perform the controversial yoga practice Khecarī Mudrā, which has him inserting his humongous tongue in his nasal cavity, through the roof of the mouth. He calls it the “invisible tongue” trick.

The Guinness record for the world’s longest tongue currently belongs to Nick Stoeberl, of Salinas, California, with an official length of 10.1 centimeters. That’s 0.8cm shorter than K Praveen’s. The Indian student now plans to collect funds and approach the international record organization and have his tongue officially acknowledged.

Even though my achievements have been recorded in India, I seek to take my talent worldwide,” Praveen said. “This would be possible if only the Tamil Nadu government provided me the aid, since I couldn’t exhibit my achievements globally, owing to lack of financial assistance.”

The robotics student is now practicing on touching his eyelids with his tongue, a feat that he feels would greatly improve his chances of getting his name in the Guinness Book of Records.