Akram Youth Right Understanding | March 2015 | Akram Youth | Page 16

You
can
everything

Persistant

The Man

Who Moved A Mountain

T

his is the story of an ordinary
man. He was amongst India’s
poorest of poor. He decided, if
those in power would not help his
people, he would. A man who believed
in the Do-It-Yourself spirit! Without
pausing for a thought, he went ahead
and did just that with his bare hands.
This is the story of Dashrath Manjhi: the
man who moved a mountain so his
people could reach a doctor in time.
It was 1960. Landless, the Mushers
16 | March 2015

lived amid rocky terrain in the remote
Atri block of Gaya, Bihar, in northern
India. In the hamlet 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 feet tall
mountain loomed between them and
civilization.
Like all the Musahar men,
Dashrath Manjhi worked on the other
side of the mountain. As they had no
road, the trek took hours before one
could cross over the mountain.
Dashrath tilled fields for a landlord on
the other side. He would quarry stone.
Due to this toil, just in a few short hours
he would be tired and hungry.
He would watch and wait for
Phaguni his wife, to bring lunch to him.
One day, she came to him empty
handed and injured. Phaguni had
tripped on loose rock. Sliding down
several feet, she had injured her leg.