Ramcharan
Yadav, the History teacher of Lokmanya Vidya Niketan Indore, alighted the bus
and asked the children to get down quietly. The class eight students were on
their annual school trip, and this was the next stop for them. It was a quiet
afternoon, and the sun was considering calling it a day. After
ensuring all students were feeling good, the teacher started speaking.
‘What you
see here was constructed by a person who lived among us some years before, in
the love for his wife soon after her soul bid farewell from this Earthly world.’
As
expected, there was no collective sigh of exclamation from the kids, who had
grown up watching engineering marvels and sky breakers across the globe.
‘Of course
this may not seem to be such a great feat today, but you must remember that he
had achieved the same at a time before machines started cutting stones or
computers began to lay out meticulous plans. Twenty two long years were spent
in the construction.’
Ramcharan
watched with delight some jaws being dropped in astonishment.
‘How deeply
did he love his wife, sir?’ asked young and bright Deepika Kaur.
‘They are
yet to come up with a device to measure love, my child. Let us say more than
his life.’
There was a
quietude as some tried to contemplate what it meant to love someone more than their
own lives.
‘All right,
kids. We have other places to visit before nightfall. Please position
yourselves and let us take a photo.’
The
thirty six students arranged themselves in two rows and posed for the class
photo. The teacher pulled out his camera from his handbag. Click. Thirty six
faces smiled against the backdrop of a simple road carved by a poor laborer by
the name of Dashrath Manjhi, popularly known as The Mountain Man.
Comments
Post a Comment