Padma award for Bihar 'Superman'?

PATNA: Lord Rama's army of monkeys, led by Hanuman, helped him build a bridge across the ocean to launch an attack on Sri Lanka to free his beloved wife Sita from the captivity of demon king Ravana. You've probably refreshed this story from the epic, "Ramayana", for the umpteenth time this Dussehra.

Dasharath Manjhi's love for his wife was no less. His story of cutting through the mountain near his village in Bihar's Gaya district to pave out a passage, chisel by chisel, hammer after hammer for 22 long years — single handedly — is no less inspirational.

With a slender frame of a man in his late seventies, diminutive and dressed in simple white kurta and dhoti, Manjhi hardly fits the stereotyped image of a superhuman.

The poor Dalit's feat is, in fact, awesome, his posthumous love for his wife perhaps surpassing the legendary love story of Salim-Anarkali: For, Manjhi took upon himself the task of breaking open a mountain pass only after his beloved wife passed away.

Reason? He could not take his ailing wife to the nearest hospital — six hours away in route skirting the mountain block — in time.

Where the mountain failed him in saving his wife, Manjhi attacked it with primitive tools like chisel and hammer to split open a 360-feet-long, 30-feet-wide and 25-feet-high passage which now enabled villagers to reach the far-away hospital in just under an hour!

Manjhi's mountain pass has reduced the distance between Atri and Wazirganj subdivisions of Gaya district from 50 km to 10 km.

When this mountain-tamer from Gaya's Gauhluar village arrived at CM Nitish Kumar's popular "Janata Ke Durbar Mein Mukhya Mantri"programme on July 24, seeking possession of the land promised by the erstwhile RJD government for his daunting feat, Nitish got up and offered him the CM's chair.

Now, the Nitish government has recommended Manjhi's name, alongwith four others, for the prestigious Padma award in social service sector.