Image from - http://www.outlookindia.com
This is a story of a man who achieved something remarkable through sheer perseverance. He literally parted a mountain with his hands.
His name is Dashrath Manjhi, born in the village of Gahlor near the city of Gaya in the state of Bihar, India. Because of the mountain, the villagers had to take a long circuitous route to get to the nearest city. Without the mountain, it would have cut down the distance drastically. I've been trying to find a good reference, but different articles I've read have different distances give. I'm not sure which is correct.
In the 60's , his wife was ill and died on the way to the hospital. This is what made Dashrath start on his herculean task, so that other people in the village will not suffer the same fate.
For the next 22 years, he single-handedly carved away at the mountain, creating a path through it. Finally in the mid-80's, after 22 years of back breaking work, he was finished. The result was a 360-foot-long (110 m), 25-foot-high (7.6 m) and 30-foot-wide (9.1 m) road right through the mountain. This road reduced the distance between Atri and Wazirganj blocks of Gaya district. Here again, I couldn't find a good reference for the amount of distance reduced. Some articles says that a distance of 75km was reduced to 1km, while others say 50km was reduced to 10km, or 15km. Whatever the distance, it was significant.
Dashrath passed away in 2007 and was given a state funeral.
I'm linking several different articles below.
The Mountain Parted
Dashrath Manjhi, the Man who Moved a Mountain
The man who made way for progress
Mountain man Dashrath Manjhi dies in Delhi
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