There are selfless people still, they walk among us. They can also be called as the silent heroes who build up civilizations. The faceless soldiers who lay down their lives protecting us, the policemen who drive in to face criminals and take the heat of citizens, the teachers who go out of their way to teach students, our parents who sacrifice their comforts and needs for a wonderful future for us, the servants, the drivers, the watchmen who take care of us with sincerity and complete dedication, there are so many unspoken heroes who make us who we are and what we are. Isn’t that so true?
Some not only do the menial jobs assigned to them, they go much beyond the call of duty. Here is a story of one such person.
Let’s travel to the south of India for the story to begin.
The Pamban Bridge is a cantilever bridge on the Palk Strait. It connects Rameswaram on Pamban Island to mainland India. It refers to both the road bridge and the cantilever railway bridge, though primarily it means the latter. It was India’s first sea bridge. It is the second longest sea bridge in India (after Bandra-Worli Sea Link) at a length of about 2.3 km.
This is a story that some say is the creation of the internet and same say is true. I have no idea what to believe in. Honestly, I don’t care, for every time I read this story, it shakes me up. Here, I present it for all my dearest readers.
It dates back to the British rule in India.
At the entrance of the bridge, till a few years ago, you could have seen a picture of a weeping man holding some human body parts close to his chest.
This bridge was built during the British rule in India and it was constructed in such a way that the center portion of the bridge could be lifted with the help of huge wheels, so that ships could easily pass under the bridge. On the bridge, roads and rail tracks are laid for trains and other vehicles to pass…
A middle aged man was appointed to roll the wheels up and down when ships arrive. One day he saw a train slowly approaching, while he was pulling back the bridge after a ship quietly passed beneath. He had to pull back quickly or else there would be a fatal accident and thousands would have died.
At that time his 9 year old son came with lunch. When he saw his father struggling with the wheels, he kept the lunch box down and started helping him to roll the wheels to put the bridge back. Suddenly his son’s finger got caught inside the wheel and he started crying out. At this time if the father tries to save his son, the bridge could not be put back on time. He had no other option but to ignore his son’s cry. With all his strength he kept on rolling the wheels to down the bridge. As the wheels rolled on, his son slowly started slipping away into the huge machine.
Tears rolled down his father’s cheeks, but he ignored his son’s cry. If he tried to save him, the train will surely fall into the sea and thousands of people will die. Slowly the boy’s whole body fell into the machine and his father could hear his bones breaking one by one, until with a loud sound, his head cracked.
The train with thousands of passengers slowly rolled on the rails, without knowing what had happened there.
Though this man performed his duty honestly he lost his only loving son. With extreme lamentation, he pulled out his son’s body parts from the machine and held them close to his chest and cried bitterly.
It is said; the British Government honored him greatly. True or not, the story made me speechless and deeply in thought.
I believe it is people like them who make the world go around. They certainly do so to mine…It is stories like these that purify the soul and elevates the spirit…
Thank you much. May it do the same to you.
Very interesting
ReplyDelete