The Mountain Cleaver

He belonged to the musahar caste, who have a weird occupation of digging through rat holes after harvest and foraging grains stored by bandicoots. His name was Dasrath Manjhi and he spent his life cutting through a mountain. It was sort of in memory of his wife who died on the way on the hospital. They would have made it in time if the hill hadn’t been blocking the way. For 22 years, he cut through the hill, chip by chip. Now, there lies a path which has shortened the trip from 19 kms to 6 kms. But, it was no easy task. He did it himself, singlehandedly, using just a hammer and a chisel for a rock 360 ft long, 25 ft high and 30 ft wide. He died a week ago and is still remembered as “the man who moved a mountain”.