41 workers trapped in the Uttarakhand tunnel for three weeks must have
experienced terminal despair. Living without a bath, without change of clothes
and sinking faith in survival every day.
Engineers, technicians, drilling experts from all over the world tried, tried and
tried. They gained a certain quantum of success, but never a final solution to the
problem. Drills broke, rocks cracked and attempts failed several times.
Then was pressed into service a team of people, skilled in a banned and banished
art. They were rat-hole miners. The team was lead by a 29 year old man from
Delhi. They are called so because they remove all debris by bare hands and
burrow narrow holes like rats. The one they dug in Uttarakhand was 2.6 ft in
diameter.
The 29 years old leader of this team, was the first to remove the last rock in the
burrow and see 41 trapped men staring at him. The trapped workers must have
felt like watching the vishwaroopam of Bhgwaan Shri Krishnan The name of this
young saviour is Munna Qureshi.
He says he and his entire team will not collect a single rupee as charges for his
services in saving these men. He says he has earned so much pride by saving the
lives of 41 Indians, that the pride will last him for a lifetime. He doesn’t need any
money for this work
If ever life is kind enough to grant you an opportunity of saving somebody's life,
and if the faith or religion or caste of those you save, even once comes to your
mind... you are a lesser soul yet to attain the stature of Munna Qureshi. He might
be an uneducated, un-groomed rat-hole miner, but he represents the Godliness in
every human. He has got the whole country thinking. May his tribe grow and may
every Indian think like Munna Qureshi.
Long live the spirit of Munna Qureshi.
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