THE MOUNTAIN MAN

– A true love story –

Feb 14^th being Valentine’s Day, I thought of writing an article on Love.  When we talk about a love monument, we naturally tend to talk about Taj Mahal, as it is considered as an epitome monument of love, which was built by Shah Jahan, in memory of his loving wife.  But, recently I saw another monument of love, which I feel was even more significant than the Taj Mahal, not for its grandeur, but for the dedication and devotion, that went behind creating it.

 
Quite a few of you may already be aware of the story of the Mountain Man. However, I would like to share this story, hoping it reaches to more people. I came across this true story about few years back, but it didn’t tug my heart so hard, until I happened to see this One Man wonder, while I was travelling across Bihar, a few months back.

Yes, I am going to share the story of Dasrath Manjhi –popularly known as the "Mountain Man, who was given this title for single-handedly carving out a 360-feet-long, 25-feet-high and 30-feet-wide passage through the mountain. He made the difference into the lives of villagers by shortening the 55 kms distance into 15 kms.

But what motivated him to do that? Here is a true love story that truly impressed me.

Manjhi, is a native of Gahlaur village near Gaya district in Bihar. He was from a poor downtrodden family. He fell deeply in love with a girl named, Falguni Devi. But her father denied the proposal, as Manjhi was jobless. But their love was so strong, that they decided to elope and started living on their own.  Falguni gave birth to a baby boy. After few years, she became pregnant again and it was at this point of time, a tragedy changed his life forever. One day, Falguni, was taking lunch for Manjhi, to the fields for which she needed to climb the mountain. Falguni's foot slipped and she fell from the mountain. The villagers alerted Manjhi about this and Manjhi, took his blood-splattered wife to the nearest hospital that was 70 kms away, where she was declared dead.

The heart-broken Manjhi, who loved his wife more than anything else in the world, began cursing the huge mountain, which was the reason for his wife’s death and vowed to bring it down. In the memory of his beloved wife, he decided that he will break the mountain to carve out a path, so that no other person suffers like his wife. All the villagers, including his father ridiculed him for undertaking a mission, which sounded almost impossible. He did not heed to that but took a hammer and chisel and embarked on the task all alone. He did not gain any public support. However, he was determined to go ahead, and he started this mission in 1960 and during the course, he couldn’t get any help either from the public or the Government. Manjhi went through extreme hardship of drought, hunger, betrayal and so many more difficulties, before he could finally get the path made in 1982. His 22 years of hard work became a success, as the road constructed by him is, now used by villagers.

The indomitable spirit of Manjhi, certainly deserves a big salute! He proved that nothing is impossible to achieve. His life gives a moral lesson that a small man, who has no money and no power can challenge a mighty mountain. Manjhi's firm determination to carve the huge mountain gives out a strong message that every hurdle can be crossed, if one has a strong motivating purpose behind what one is doing.

Love, definitely proves to be a strong purpose.

 D. Senthil Kannan,

  Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

  Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

  Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com