What is that one expression of speech which you might have used many a times, but had never thought that it could be literally true? For me, it was moving a mountain.
But Dashrath Manjhi proved me wrong.
Coming from Gehlaur village, a place near Gaya, Bihar, Dashrath Manjhi was just an ordinary labor who used to work on daily wages. What people didn’t know about him was that he was a man of magnanimous determination.
Or else who would have even thought of moving a 300 feet tall mountain single handily, only using a chisel and hammer. Initially he didn’t even had the money to buy those basic tools, so he sold his goats to the required sum.
Popularly known as the ‘Mountain Man’, it all started in the year 1959 when his wife, Falguni Devi, got severely injured and needed immediate medical attention. With the Gehlaur hills standing tall between him and the doctor, he had to travel around the hills, covering a distance of 70 km, to reach the nearest doctor available. Sadly, his wife couldn’t make it, and died on the way to the hospital.
That is when Dashrath Manjhi took the onus upon himself to cut short the distance between Wazirganj Blocks and Atri. In order to do so, he had to carve his way through the mountains, which he eventually did. It took him 22 long years to minimize the distance of 80 km to 13 km.
From 1960 to 1982, he worked day and night, all by himself, to carve a 110 metre long path through the mountains. When he started, no one stood in his support. In fact, people used to laugh at him for doing such a crazy thing. But the poor farmer was unbaffled by all this.
His efforts made sure that the kids only have to walk for 3 km to reach the school. And all the medical facilities of Wazirganj can now be easily accessed by almost 60 villages of Atri using the road which he built.
Dashrath Manjhi’s efforts were later on appreciated by the government, he was given a piece of land for excellent work. But being the generous and huge hearted guy Manjhi was, he donated the land to a hospital. He never wanted anything in return, Manjhi only believed in selfless deeds.
Sadly, his heroic life came to an end on 17th August, 2007 due to gall bladder cancer. But that is not the only part which is sad about this story. Even after doing all this, still very few people know about him.
Today, when there are people like Mayawati who adopt a village because the Prime Minister said so, and then never even bother to look back at it, there was also a guy like Dashrath Manjhi, who did so much for his village. And he never did anything with the intention of benefiiting for himself. He did it because he didn’t want anyone to face what his wife did.
He was a real life hero, and it is people like him who make us feel really proud. Who needs a superhero when we have people like the Mountain Man in our country.
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