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Man works as statue for 32 years
His boss had recently travelled to the UK, where he was so impressed by the statue-like members of the Royal Guard outside Buckingham Palace that he wanted to do something similar back home.
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So he had his security guards undergo three months of training, where they would sit perfectly still for around four hours.
They weren’t allowed to talk or smile, eat, drink, or even shoo away a fly if it sat on their faces. In the end, Abdul proved the best of the group, so he got the strange job.
“Initially, I didn’t like the idea, but I didn’t have the courage to say no to my employer as I didn’t want to be without a job,” the Statue Man told Friday Magazine.
So he agreed to work as a living statue for six hours a day, resisting the resort visitors’ attempts to make him smile or move. And he’s been doing it for 32 years now, with great success.
Aziz isn’t the only person in the world posing as a living statue, but what makes him special is the fact that he can do it for as long as six hours without even blinking an eyelid, despite people’s constant attempts to make him reveal his humanity.
They make faces in front of him, tell all kinds of jokes or try to scare him to get the smallest reaction, but so far no one has been able to do it.
At one point, the VGP Golden Beach Resort became so confident in Abdul’s ability to pose as a living statue that they put up a 10,000 rupee ($155) prize for anyone who can make him move a muscle.
That made his job a lot more difficult, as to some Indians $155 is a monthly salary, but try as they might, no one has ever succeeded in getting the smallest reaction from the Statue Man.
Some children will sometimes try to poke and prod him to make him move, but, luckily, he has security guards nearby who come to his aid.
“Standing like a statue for hours might look easy, but it is a very difficult and demanding job,” Abdul says.
“When I started the job, I was full of vigour and energy. But, now over the years, I have come to know the stress involved, which is affecting my health. Standing still for hours has started to affect my blood circulation.”