Climbing capers

Performing in India for the first time Roberts will be seen climbing the tallest tower at Amanora Park Town today evening. After inspecting the building for a couple of hours and escalating a few floors beforehand he says,“I was surprised when people down spread the net for me while I was practicing here. Infact wherever the bystanders offer safety options I try to move away from them,I have never felt the need. It is a part of my life now,to take up challenges and challenge the system.” In addition to holding various ascending records,Robert also holds a Guinness Book Record for being jailed in various cities across the globe for having climbed the towers there without permission. “There have been instances when I have reached the zenith and cops have been waiting to bash me up so lately I have been climbing down too in order to escape while they take the lift and wait for me upstairs in vain,” adds Robert who also has 66 per cent disability and suffers from vertigo.

With a dozen public events lined up in a year,and random escalades over beautiful buildings Roberts practices on his bedroom ceiling of 40 sq metres everyday,while walking parallel to the ground holding on to the roof. “We tend to think that higher the ascent,difficult the climb,which is not the truth since height is not the concern. At times a single glimpse is enough to contemplate if climbing would be possible depending on the structural intricacies. A few often say they come to see me fall down but I perform for the rest of the 99 per cent who enjoy seeing me there. I am a showman for whom the brain is a much more superior machine than those devised by it for our safety,” he says,adding with a smile,“And I am incredibly fond of living on the edge,which besides hanging hundreds of metres high,has had me being felicitated by the Prime Minister of a country on one day and killing cockroaches in the jail on the next.”