Dashrath Manjhi is a man who is a great example of hard work and dedication. He is the man who single-handedly dug a road right through a mountain using only a hammer and chisel. He decided to make this impossible task possible when his love for his wife turned into stubbornness after the tragic death of his wife and did not sit quietly until a path was made through an entire mountain. For this incredible achievement, he was also named Mountain Man. Dashrath Manjhi came from a very backward area and belonged to the Dalit group, a member of the lowest caste of India's caste system. In early life, he struggled to ask for his minor rights. He left his home at a young age and worked in the coal mines at Dhanbad. But he later returned to the village of Gehlaur, near Gaya in Bihar where he became an agricultural laborer and married Falguni Devi.
Dashrath Manjhi's journey to becoming a mountain man is incomplete without mentioning his wife. In 1959, due to the steeply ascending quartzite ridge standing between Gehlaur and the hospital, his wife Falguni Devi could not get treatment at the right time when she was badly injured and passed away. Some reports say that she was walking along a narrow path across the rocky ridge to bring her husband some water or lunch when she was seriously injured. The nearest medical facility was about 40 miles away and she died shortly after the accident. Hurt by the grief of his wife's death, he decided to give all his strength and resolved to cut a road across the ridge to make his village more accessible so that such a tragedy would never happen again. But according to Manjhi, it was not easy when he started hammering the hill, initially, he was called lunatic by the people but that steeled his resolve. Over time, the locals began to honor his work, as he saw him keeping his promise and many of them began to provide food and tools for the "Mountain Man". Manjhi worked continuously on the road day after day, slowly but one day he was able to make way from the hill. He completed the work in 22 years, from 1960 to 1982 and carved a path 110 m long, 9.1 m wide and 7.6 m deep through a ridge of rocks, and reduced the distance between the Atri and Wazirganj sectors of the Gaya district from 55 km to 15 km.
At the age of 73, the mountain man was diagnosed with cancer in his gallbladder and was admitted to AIIMS, leading to his death in 2007. On his death, he was given a state funeral by the Government of Bihar. After he left the world, his inspiring story of how he had become a mountain man was left behind, which will continue to teach a lesson to many generations to come.
Dashrath Manjhi's journey to becoming a mountain man is incomplete without mentioning his wife. In 1959, due to the steeply ascending quartzite ridge standing between Gehlaur and the hospital, his wife Falguni Devi could not get treatment at the right time when she was badly injured and passed away. Some reports say that she was walking along a narrow path across the rocky ridge to bring her husband some water or lunch when she was seriously injured. The nearest medical facility was about 40 miles away and she died shortly after the accident. Hurt by the grief of his wife's death, he decided to give all his strength and resolved to cut a road across the ridge to make his village more accessible so that such a tragedy would never happen again. But according to Manjhi, it was not easy when he started hammering the hill, initially, he was called lunatic by the people but that steeled his resolve. Over time, the locals began to honor his work, as he saw him keeping his promise and many of them began to provide food and tools for the "Mountain Man". Manjhi worked continuously on the road day after day, slowly but one day he was able to make way from the hill. He completed the work in 22 years, from 1960 to 1982 and carved a path 110 m long, 9.1 m wide and 7.6 m deep through a ridge of rocks, and reduced the distance between the Atri and Wazirganj sectors of the Gaya district from 55 km to 15 km.
At the age of 73, the mountain man was diagnosed with cancer in his gallbladder and was admitted to AIIMS, leading to his death in 2007. On his death, he was given a state funeral by the Government of Bihar. After he left the world, his inspiring story of how he had become a mountain man was left behind, which will continue to teach a lesson to many generations to come.
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