Transcend India
Heard of Dashrath Manjhi?
Yes – then you know the virtue of having undying faith on something that you are doing for days … months … years;
No – then you had missed something, which could have changed your life for good, forever. Read on.
Dashrath Manjhi was born in 1934 into a poor labourer family at Gahlour village nearGaya,Bihar. He belonged to Musahar community – a community, which wakes up to abject poverty and humiliation every day and goes to bed half-fed every night. 98% of the Musahars are landless even today.
The villages of the regions were all isolated as steep hills and stoned terrains separated them from each other. The situation was so bad that villagers had to risk their lives to reach the nearest market town while travelling through treacherous slopes. In 1959, Dashrath’s wife Falguni Devi fell sick and had to be taken to a Hospital. It was either 75 km away around the hills or one had to take a life-threatening shortcut through hills. Dashrath decided to take the shortcut as Falguni Devi’s condition was too serious. She died on the way.
Dashrath’s world came crashing down. He lost his love and he knew that whatever he does, she would never come back. He was more worried for many others like him who have no easy access to life’s basic amenities.
To bring the villages closer the mountain had to move. Dashrath started carving out a road from the mountain all by himself. He started building the road with only a hammer and a chisel in 1960. Dashrath was a daily wage-earner then. Despite the challenges of making both ends’ meet, he continued his work – an uphill task (literally)! This madness continued till 1982, i.e. after 22 years he started doing it. By then he managed to carve out a road which is 360 ft long, 25 ft high and 30 ft wide. The distance between Atri and Wazirganj blocks reduced to just 10 km from erstwhile 75 km. This monumental task changed the fortunes of all the villagers around the hill.
The Mountain Man
Finally govt took notice of this selfless magnanimous effort. Dashrath was given a five acre plot near his village, which he donated for construction of a hospital. This he had done, when his only son and daughter-in-law were handicapped and the family lives in abject poverty. Dashrath was detected with lung cancer later. Bihar govt then shifted him to AIIMS,Delhi. He died there in 2007. Chief Minister himself went to his village to receive his body and arranged for a state funeral. The village is now named Dashrath Nagar and Dashrath is fondly remembered as ‘Pahad Purush’ or ‘Mountain Man’. A big-budget hindi feature film based on his life is also going to be made soon.
What this story is doing here in a blog dedicated to personal finance? I strongly believe that Dashrath has left a lot to learn for us, the disciplined investors’ community. What you can achieve if you have chosen your way carefully and then stick to it diligently – come what may? Put hard work day in and day out and stay focused, and then nothing is impossible. You can even move a mountain; Dashrath has showed us the way.
Liked it? Do you really think that you can learn something here and put that in use? Have similar experience to share? Then please leave a comment. I am eagerly waiting to hear from you.