Patna: Where there is hope, there is indeed a way!
That’s what seems to be motivating villagers in Bihar who have carved out a motorable road through the mountains after months of hard work in the hope that it will end their long drought of marriage and get them brides.
Hapless residents from twin villages, Barwan Kalan and Barwan Khurd, located deep inside the jungles in Kaimur district, more than 300km south-west of Patna, had their youth giving up hope of getting married. Currently, there are some 130 “bachelors” and their number is growing every year.
The reason behind it was that the twin villages were totally cut-off from the rest of world due to lack of roads. As a result villagers would have to trudge for long to reach the local markets to buy any essential commodities or even fetch water from nearby villages.
Jinxed villagers later approached the local authorities to seek help but their appeal was summarily rejected on the ground that their villages fell in the areas designated as a wildlife sanctuary where every kinds of construction works or economic activities are banned.
Left with no option, the villagers themselves decided to build a road by cutting through the rocky mountain. Armed with chisels, hammers and other traditional implements, the villagers worked day and night for well over two years to finally carve out a road through the mountain last month. Now, the villagers find themselves on the top of the world with cycles, paddle rickshaws, tractor lorries and other vehicles treading the path to deliver required goods to these villages.
Their move, however, has earned them criminal cases registered by the forest department, slapping of fines on them and also threats of jail terms for defying the government’s order to build road in the wildlife sanctuary.
“But, this does not bother us anymore. We are happy that now we will get married soon,” a happy Santosh Kharwar, 26, told a local daily adding “Now, the people can visit us on motorbikes and wedding procession can leave our village on tractors as well.”
The villager also organised prayers to thank God for giving them the strength to build a road and also to help them get married soon now that they have a road. “Scaling two hills and braving rough jungle terrain for hours to the nearest market had been our daily routine for decades. Now we are hopeful that the bachelors will get brides,” said Baban Kharwar, 32.
Earlier, “mountain man” Dashrath Manjhi had carved a 360-foot long and 30 feet-wide road through the rocky Gehlaur hills in Gaya district after 22 years of hard work. He got the road built after his wife Falguni Devi died for want of timely medical help owing to lack of road in 1960s.
