Most parents are willing to do whatever it takes for their kids to get a good education. For one father in a remote part of India, that meant creating a path through rocky terrain to make it easier for his kids to get to school.
Jalandhar Nayak, 45, is a vegetable seller in the state of Orissa in eastern India. His three sons have to walk six miles from their remote village to their school. However, because of the hills and rough terrain, it takes them three hours one way to make the trip.
“My children found it hard to walk on the narrow and stony path while going to their school,” explains Nayak.
So he decided to do something to make the journey safer and easier for his sons. For the past two years, Nayak has gone to the hills with a chisel, a pickaxe, and a garden hoe, trying to create a road that will be easy for his sons to traverse on their way to school and back.
He would remove boulders and cut rocks to make the path safe, sometimes working up to eight hours a day. After two years of work, the path he carved was five miles long.
rt.com
Fortunately, Nayak’s efforts have not gone unnoticed. He was recently featured in a local bulletin, which caught the eye of government officials.
“Nayak’s effort and determination to cut mountains to build a road left me spellbound,” said a local government administrator.
That official has stated that the government will take over for Nayak and complete construction of the road. The government will also compensate Nayak for the time he spent building the road.
Nayak, whose family is the only residence left in the small village, is “extremely happy” that the road will be completed. He’s hopeful that once the road is finished his sons will be able to come home more often on holidays and weekends.