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Mountainous Ambitions
The story of a man who spent 22 years unearthing a path through a 300ft mountain and the lesson it teaches us
Falguni Devi carefully stepped on the rocky trail as she used one hand to balance a water pot on her head. Her other hand carried food for her husband, who toiled as a farmhand on the other side of the 300-foot mountain she ascended. Devi was navigating the path she and many of her fellow villagers routinely took up and over the steep mountain on their way to the city center. But on this dreadful day, loose rocks caused her to slip and fall from the mountain’s ridge. When notified that his wife was seriously injured, Dashrath Manjhi rushed to her side, but there was little he could do. The nearest hospital was a 40-mile trek around the mountain. Devi succumbed to her injuries.
The setting is the Indian village of Gehlaur in Bihar in 1960. The year Dashrath Manjhi began unearthing a path through the mountain that claimed the life of his beloved wife. It’s a story that underscores the magnitude of our life’s potential when we focus on our daily actions.
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After his wife’s death, Manjhi continued to toil as a farmhand to feed his two children. But after every workday, he…