A year ago, in September, a class five student from Bengaluru sung his way into the Limca Book of Record. His feat was singing 112 different national-anthems. The 12-year-old aspiring ‘anthem-o-logist’ now aims to break the Guinness recorded feat of the highest number of national anthems sung by an individual.

In the last few months Yathaarth M has memorized the national anthems of over a hundred more countries in his pursuit of adding a new word to the English dictionary: ‘anthem-o-logy’.

After being taught the national anthems of Japan, Sri Lanka and Nepal by his music teacher, Yathaarth developed a curiosity towards understanding countries through their national anthems and started learning on his own. For the next few years he spent at least an hour to practice singing national anthems everyday and found more interest in learning the anthems of lesser known countries. He now knows over 225 anthems, including those of every single United Nations-member country.

The 12-year-old son of Shipla and Spoorthy NM, who are both freelance architects , wants to create a new field of research by studying the national anthems of different countries. He also wants to set three new records and break at least two. Apart from wanting to break the records for the most number of national anthems learnt in the shortest span of three years and breaking the record for the highest number of songs sung in different languages by an individual, Yathaarth wants to travel to 100 different countries and sing their national anthems. With this he wishes to break the 2015 record set by Capri Everitt, who was 11 then, of singing the most number of national anthems in their host countries in a year’s time.

Eviritt’s journey along with her parents, singing anthems across the world, and raising money for international charity SOS Children’s Villages, ended in August last year. To break Everitt’s record, Yathaarth has to sing each of the host countries national anthem (77 at least) in full on their soil. He has gained attention of some private organizations but still waiting for sponsors.

Yathaarth’s talent has brought him some fame and he will be travelling to California next month, to give a TEDx talk at the TEDx Youth CAMS event. Earlier this month, he talked about at a TEDx-ISBR Bangalore event at the Jagriti theatre.

“He used to come to me and ask for printouts of national anthems of countries, the names of which I have never heard. I did not bother much and gave him what he wanted. Today he can sing nearly 225 nationals anthems. We are happy that he has achieved something extraordinary,” said Shilpa.

Yathaarth holds the Limca Book of Record for singing the national anthems of 112 countries.