Monument of Love - Dashrath Manjhi

#ashokasays Did you know 192 :

Dashrath Manjhi – the man who moved a mountain!

All of you have heard of a "story" of Shahjahan building a monument of love to his beloved wife and many of the consider that as the emblem of love.
Yes it is beautiful, But just give a thought is that the only one in the whole of the world that can be a symbol of love or is it just marketed very well..
Just take this story of this great Man Dasheath Manjhi.
It was 1960. Landless laborers, the Musahars, lived amid rocky terrain in the remote Atri block of Gaya, Bihar, in northern India. In the community of Gehlour, they were regarded the lowest of the low in a caste-ridden society, and denied the basics: water supply, electricity, a school, a medical center.

A 300-foot tall mountain loomed between them and all the basic facilities that they had always longed for.

Dashrath Manjhi worked on the other side of the mountain. At noon, his wife Phaguni would bring his lunch. As they had no road, the trek took hours over the mountain. Dashrath tilled fields for a landlord on the other side. He would quarry stone.

Phaguni walked up and down the mountain every day to give him lunch and get back. That too bare foot. On a particular day she tripped down a loose rock and was badly injured and from then on she was unable to get him food and she was crying not able to make it to Dashrath.

But on seeing her tears, he made a decision. He decided that he was not going to wait for anyone to solve his problems, he was going to do-it-himself.

Dashrath bought a hammer, chisel, and crowbar. He had to sell his goats, which meant a lower income for his family. He climbed to the top, and started chipping away at the mountain. Later his wife fell sick and To take her to the hospital they had to travel 75km around the mountain. As he couldn't take her she passed away. This really enraged him and Manjhi accelerated his work. Initially people made fun of him as they said that what one man can do. But later they respected him.

It was not an easy task. He would often get hurt by the rocks falling from the unyielding mountain. He would rest and then start again. At times, he helped people carry their things over the mountain for a small fee, money to feed his children. After 10 years, as Manjhi chipped away, people saw a cleft in the mountain and some came to help.

 After 22 years, Dashrath Das Manjhi, the common man, the landless laborer, had broken the mountain: he had carved out a road 360 feet long, 30 feet wide. Wazirganj, with its doctors, jobs, and school, was now only 5 kilometers away. People from 60 villages in Atri could use his road.

When you have all the resources like a maharaja its relatively easy to construct a monument ... but look at this road, is it any less than a monument of love..?

INCREDIBLE BHARATHIYA..