A Hammer, a Chisel, a Mountain, and Love

Dash loved his wife. He was heartbroken when she tragically died. To honor her memory, and to help his village, Dash grabbed a hammer, a chisel, and he began a project that would consume his him for the next twenty-two years.

Dashrath Manjhi (Dash) and his wife lived in a remote village, over thirty-four miles from the nearest town. To get to work or to gather water required traversing a treacherous and narrow mountain pass, something they had to do daily.

One day Dash’s wife was bringing him lunch in the fields where he worked. As she climbed the mountain pass, she slipped and fell. With the nearest doctor over 30 miles away, she couldn’t get the medical care she needed and she died.

Dash resolved to never let something like that happen again. With a hammer and chisel, he began cutting a path through the mountain to make the nearest town more accessible. He worked the fields all day and chiseled the mountain at night. Dash said, “When I started hammering the hill, people called me a lunatic, but that only steeled my resolve.”

Dashrath Manijhi and his hammer

Twenty-two years after he began, Dash finished chiseling his path through the mountain. The path was 360 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 25 feet high, and it shortened the distance from his village to the town from thirty-four miles to nine. The people of his village now had access to the medical care his wife never did.

Twenty-five years after Dash completed his path, the government finally paved it and made his path a road. When he died, the government honored Dash with a state funeral and later issued a commemorative stamp to acknowledge his help to the people of his village.

When tragedy struck, Dash channeled his grief into a near-impossible task. He honored his wife by ensuring others didn’t have to suffer the same fate she did. The very villagers he was trying to help ridiculed him, but Dash pressed on. He persevered for decades and accomplished his goal. He honored his wife and he helped the people of his village. 

That is the power of love and the power of perseverance. Imagine what you could do in your life if you allowed love to drive you and perseverance to help you prevail.

What could you accomplish in the next twenty-two years?  Maybe you should find out.