India Poised

TOI has launched a new “India Poised” Campaign this year, to make the future of India brighter and better. It’s a really well carried out campaign. In today’s edition I read about a man who hammered away 22 years of life to give life and progress to his village. Dasrath Manjhi, as was his name, chiseled a 300-ft mountain which was hampering the life in his village, and as he had no faith in government, he took up the Herculean task. To go anywhere, the villagers had to cross the formidable hills, with all the shops and lands across them. The determined man sold his goats to buy a chisel, hammer and rope. He never bothered to eat while at the task, and at the end of 22 years, proved all those who ridiculed him to be a madman for setting upon his target, wrong. The passage was wide enough for the people of his village to reach the nearest hospital in an hour instead of six hours taking a circuitous route. In the process, he lost his wife, whom he loved dearly, just because she couldn’t be taken to the hospital in time then.

I felt that this was such a motivational story of a man set to beat all odds. I really wish to make a difference to the lives of the millions of Indians who slave themselves to make ends meet, see no progress, no technology, and are the true face of India. We say that India has developed, but has it really? When the actual population of my country is still shrouded in the mist of gloom? The politicians are mere dummies, who know how to speak and not how to act, and India shining will be nothing more than a dream if nothing is done to get these inhabitants of darkness to share the light many of us, fortunate enough to be brought up in cities, have.