Motivational story of Dasharath Manjhi AKA The Mountain Man - MQS

Good morning dear readers welcome to Motivational Quote and Story.

Confucius once said – “The Man Who Moves a Mountain, Begins By Crying Away Small Stones.”

When I first saw this beautiful quote, the image that immediately popped into my mind is for Mr. Dashrath Manjhi. It is like this quote is literarily made for him. Today I will try to briefly tell you the story of Mr. Dashrath Manjhi, AKA “The Mountain Man”.

The back story of Dashrath Manjhi - 

Mr. Manjhi was born on 14th Jan 1929 in the village named Gehlaur which is situated in the state of Bihar(INDIA). At an early age, he ran away from his house to work in the cole field at Dhanbad. After working seven years in the cole field of Dhanbad Dashrath finally came back to his village. In his village, he falls for a beautiful girl named Falguni Devi. But Falguni Devi’s father was not willing to see a jobless person such as Dashrath as his son-in-law, hence Dashrath had to work hard to get married to Falguni Devi. Both of them started a sweet family in his village.

Life in Gehlaur Village -

Speaking about Dashrath Manjhi’s village, Gehalur is a small village situated in the northern valley of Rajgir Hill. Because of this hill, Gehlaur had no connectivity with the nearest town, Wazirganj. For every small need, the villagers had to cross the long dangerous mountain path to go to the nearest town. Because of such an awkward geographical location, there was little to no development in the village. Most of the villagers were illiterate and daily wage laborers. Also, there was a very prominent cast system in the village where higher cast persons had a huge social and political advantage over the lower cast. Dalits are the lowerest of lower cast people who did not even have the right to speak with a higher cast person.

The tragedy that changed Dashrath’s Life -

After his marriage, Dashrath took the job of a daily waged laborer in the nearest field, where Falguni Devi use to bring him food during his launch hours. The tragedy took place on one dreadful day in the year 1959, when Falguni Devi was carrying food for her husband. At that time she was pregnant and while carrying food through the mountain path she failed from the mountain. When Dashrath got the information about this accident he rushed to the nearest hospital, which was approximately 75 km away, carrying his wounded wife. In the hospital, Falguni Devi was declared dead. It was said Falguni Devi could have been saved if she would have reached the nearest hospital in time. This incident divested young Dashrath Manjhi, at the same time he became determined about the fact that he needs to do something about the issue; so that no other person had to suffer the same faith as he is.

The epic story of Man vs Mountain begins -

Armed himself with only a chisel and hammer he slowly started to curve the hill. To all the readers who are reading this article, just imagine one person with a hammer and a chisel chipping away stones of a hill for days, so that he can carve away a road that can connect one village to the nearest city, which was a matter of concern to the villagers for generations. I do not know about you, it always gives me goosebumps whenever I imagine this mammoth task. After 22 years of relentless struggle and labor, Mr. Dashrath Manjhi finally carved out 110 meters long, 9.1 meters wide, and 25 ft deep road through the ridgeline of the hill connecting Atri and Wazirganj. Because of this road, the distance of these two sectors was reduced from 55 km to 15 km.

Curving a mountain to create a path is not the only struggle Mr. Manjhi had to do, but initially, when he started chipping the hill he had to face a lot of criticism and taunting from the villagers. When Gehalur was hit by famine due to a draught, even Dashrath’s father requested him to leave the village and shift to the nearest town so that he and his family can survive the difficult time. But to the surprise of his father, Dashrath denied leaving his village and continued to his path of determination. The situation at that time became so worse that when he got fatigued with thirst and hunger he had to drink dirty water and eat the raw vegetation in the name of foods.

During the time when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared an emergency, Dashrath managed to get into one picture with Indira Gandhi when she visited Bihar for a rally. This picture gave him some fame in his village. But to his surprise, the village mukhiya (Head of the Village) managed to trick him stating that his thumb impression will help the village get funds to make a road on the hill. When he realized that he is cheated he thought about marching to the capital to complain directly to the prime minister herself. But again his faith did not give him any favor with this. Due to no ticket, the Ticket collecter banished him from the train to Delhi. Dashrath walked the long-distance and finally reached Delhi but again to his surprise he got ridiculed in front of the Prime minister’s office and did not get an opportunity to meet with her, even his picture with the prime minister got torn apart.

 Heartbroken, he then returned back to his village and tried to finish the work he started a long year back. This time few villagers come across to help him even a journalist came forward to document his story. In the year 1982, finally, Dashrath’s 22 year-long struggle ended with the announcement of new road construction in the same site where Dashrath worked for 22 years. In the year 2011 Bihar government officially named the road “Dashrath Manjhi Path”. Dashrath also got his due recognition when the Bihar government proposed his name for the Padma Shree award (one of the highest Indian civilian awards). Indian The postal department also issued a postal stamp with the picture of Mr. Dashrath Manjhi. Recently there is a Bollywood movie made after the life of this great person named “Manjhi – The Mountain Man”, where the character of Mr. Manjhi is played by the great Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Mr. Manjhi died on 17^th Aug 2007 due to gallbladder cancer. His personality is itself is a lesson to us; he proves that if a man is determined enough wants he can bend a mountain itself.