The good thing about dreamchasing is that one needs no further motivation. The dream does it all by itself. It beckons, it goads, it inspires and even disciplines. It is said that if you dream long enough then you will get there. The trick is to dream long enough. But how long is long enough? This question reminds me of Archimedes when he spoke of the power of cantilever and said something like 'give me a pole long enough and i will lift the earth with just my bare hands'. Yeah sure... but i bet it will have to be a very long pole..... very very long.
But then there are people out there who keep looking for this long pole, some even find it and in their own way end up lifting the earth with just their bare hands.
Manhji, a small time farmer in a remote village somewhere out there, is one such man. It seems that his little village is separated from the cultivable lands by a rugged hill and that all the farmers have to cross this hill to get to their fields. The trek is long, tough and dangerous and many a villager slipped on the slippery slope and was hurt trying to get to or from his fields.
One such villager was a petite women who slipped and broke her ankle while trying to fetch her husband's lunch as he toiled across in the fields. The very next day, Manhji, the husband, sold all the goats he had and traded them in for a chisel, a hammer and some rope. He then set about chiseling the sheer rock face intending to cut a safe and direct path through to the fields. It looked a funny sight, a man dwarfed by the 300 ft rock wall, hammering away at the formidable rockface with little more than a small chisel and a puny little hammer. He worked day and night, long hours, caring for nothing else, many a times even forgetting to eat. Villagers jeered at him, called him names but he just kept at it. Day after day, month after month, year after year. It took him 22 years to do it but one day he stood on the other side looking at all the fields. Behind him was a path he tore through the rockface straight to his village.
22 years is a long time to chase a dream. But ask Manhji and he will tell you how it was longer than what meets the eye.
Manhji, a small time farmer in a remote village somewhere out there, is one such man. It seems that his little village is separated from the cultivable lands by a rugged hill and that all the farmers have to cross this hill to get to their fields. The trek is long, tough and dangerous and many a villager slipped on the slippery slope and was hurt trying to get to or from his fields.
One such villager was a petite women who slipped and broke her ankle while trying to fetch her husband's lunch as he toiled across in the fields. The very next day, Manhji, the husband, sold all the goats he had and traded them in for a chisel, a hammer and some rope. He then set about chiseling the sheer rock face intending to cut a safe and direct path through to the fields. It looked a funny sight, a man dwarfed by the 300 ft rock wall, hammering away at the formidable rockface with little more than a small chisel and a puny little hammer. He worked day and night, long hours, caring for nothing else, many a times even forgetting to eat. Villagers jeered at him, called him names but he just kept at it. Day after day, month after month, year after year. It took him 22 years to do it but one day he stood on the other side looking at all the fields. Behind him was a path he tore through the rockface straight to his village.
22 years is a long time to chase a dream. But ask Manhji and he will tell you how it was longer than what meets the eye.
3 comments:
At the cost of repeating my self ....man you are too good! Is this Manji story real!!! You see alot of such stories in my part of world! But I have to commend you for putting it so beautifully. ordinary people can create extraordinary possibilities!
Stories untold...
Manji is real. he is alive and still struggling. now he is struggling against a mountain called bureaucracy. the bureaucracy that once promised him land for a school and has since forgotten him. i believe his current struggle is going to be longer....
Thats so sad ...
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