“He who says he can and he who says he can’t are both usually right,” these are the words of a Chinese philosopher named Confucius. And these words prove out to be true many a times. There is nothing that can be achieved if you don’t believe that you can do it. Similarly, there is nothing that you can’t achieve if you believe in yourself. And such people who believe in making a change, in fighting against all odds, stand as an inspiration to all of us. One such story comes from Patna in Bihar.
Recently the state experienced the worst flood. Lakhs of people from around a thousand villages were warned about the possibility of being affected by floods. Amongst these was the village of Bairiya of Baliya district in Bihar. This village and the surrounding 12 villages were protected from being affected by the flood by the dam in Dubechapara district. However, this dam was 60 years old and was under repair and the warning that this dam would break down and flood these villages was issued. And this information was passed on to the senior divisional magistrate of the district Arvind Kumar.
Arvind Kumar was not a man to take these warnings lightly. He was on his toes to set these things right. He reached Bairiya at 2AM on the night of 26th August. He travelled on a boat to reach the dam which was damaged. He met people from that place and nearby villages and asked them to shift to high altitude makeshift locations closer to the national highway. Locals were shifted by boats to safe places.
The next battle was to have a plan in action if the dam would break down. The officer found sand bags in the nearby area. He asked people to place it near to the dam so that they could deflect the water flow. But people around were afraid to do so. The officer stood as an example by taking the responsibility on himself. He carried the bag himself and moved towards the dam. Seeing him do this many others joined hands. Around 100-150 men stood hand in hand and within hours sandbags were laid across the 3.5 km long dam. This formed a shielding wall against the raging water. As soon as this was over Mr. Arvind Kumar summoned the NDRF teams to shift the people from the nearby villages to safe areas. The dam had broken down only after everyone was shifted .
Examples of this kind show the things that can be achieved by human wisdom and dedication. People like Arvind Kumar stand as role models for us to follow.
Leave a Comment