This man did something completely beyond imagination that no one else had ever thought of. Dashrath Manjhi was an outcast and a landless labour that used to trek across a huge mountain that was 300-foot tall, just to reach to the field where he worked. It was indeed a dangerous trek often had led to accidents Dashrath’s wife --Phaguni was also one of the sufferers who met with an accident while trekking that mountain as she was on the way to the field where her husband used to work. Every afternoon Dashrath’s wife used to bring food for him to the field after crossing that dangerous trek and one day she got late in reaching as she met with an bad accident in the middle of the way. It completely shattered Manjhi and then and there he decided that he would now do something against this mountain and he made up his mind to pave a road through that huge mountain. It was the year 1960, a community of landless labourers known as the Musahars used to live amongst the rocky terrain in the remote Atri block of Gaya, Bihar. In the community of Gehlor these labourers were regarded as the outcast, trodden class and were denied to the basic amenities such as water, electricity, schools and most importantly any medical facilities. Now, Dashrath belonged to this lowest caste and yet some enormous idea was brewing in his mind. After his wife got badly hurt he finally decided to carve a road through the mountain. He began his work with simple tools that he had to buy – hammer, chisel, and crowbar. He every morning used to begin his work of cutting the mountain for few hours and then came back to the field, he would hardly sleep. Gradually word began to spread the villagers started respecting him for his selfless action thus they began to donate food to his family. Dashrath eventually left his wage job and started giving his major of the time to the cutting of the mountain. Meanwhile Phanguni died of an illness and due to the lack of medical facility since the doctor was 75km away from the village. This incidence deeply hurt him and with this thing only he got more passionate about completing his unimaginable task. After a rigorous hard work of 10 years finally people saw a cleft in the mountain and some came to help. Villager began to call Dashrath as BABA. For whole of 22years Dashrath had broken the mountain he actually carved out a road about 360 feet long, 30 feet wide. Now doctors, schools and jobs were only 5kms away. People of sixty villages in Atri were using that road. The Indian Government rewarded Dashrath’s endeavour with a plot of land but he quickly donated that land to a hospital, he was even nominated for the ‘Padma Shree’. On August 2007 BABA aka Dashrath Das Manjhi lost his life battle against cancer. But his selfless action paved a way for many other people who could not even think of doing what Dashrath had done. Deep regards to this great man!
