Road Doctor #WATWB

To date, we would have heard about various doctors in their profession, like medical doctors, homeopathy doctors, the people who have earned their Ph.D. But have you heard about Road Doctor at any time? This is one degree that wasn’t awarded by any institute after completing a course. But it was given by the people to a person fondly! You are getting curious now, isn’t it?

There is this person by the name of Mr. Gangadhara Tilak from Hyderabad who spends his own time and pension money filling the potholes on the roads on which we also travel daily to save our lives.

This all started after him witnessing an accident due to a pothole. This is the same pothole where his car skidded and splashed the stagnant rainwater onto the school-going kids and spoiled their dresses. He, being a concerned citizen, informed the nearest police officer about this pothole and requested the authorities’ intervention to close it at the earliest.

Image Source: Google

How the Road Doctor was born?

But nothing happened, and after a week, a city bus rammed into an autorickshaw, crushing a person to instant death. This was the turning point for Gangadhar sir, as he thought life wouldn’t have been wasted today had someone filled this pothole. So he decided to take up that task himself, embracing the Gandhian philosophy of

“Be the Change that you wish to see in the world”

From then onwards, there was no turning point for him; he started spending all his pension amount of 20,000 rupees on buying sand and cement. His car trunk would always have the gunny sacks full of this concrete mixture, which he used during his lunchtime to fill the potholes on the roads.

Prior to this incident, he was leading a retired life, as he retired from South Indian Railways. But since he started using all his pension funds, he also started working in a software company as a consultant in Hyderabad to maintain his household.

Seeing his hard work, even a few police officials started helping him in filling up the potholes. Slowly, his work was noticed by the Corporation of Hyderabad, and they also started sharing his expenses. Kids who are seeing him do this work daily started calling him Road Doctor or the Pothole Uncle. That’s how his new name and degrees came to him. He has filled up more than 1500 potholes all by himself.

Image Source: The News Minute

Now since this Road Doctor or Pothole man is getting funds from GHMC, he has resigned his job in the software consultancy and started working full time in closing the potholes on the Hyderabad roads. His daily household expenses are being taken care of by his son.

Gangadhar sir’s son has helped him create a Facebook page and website to spread Gangadhar sir’s passion and hard work to other cities. Now the NGO Shramadaan has extended its services to other states like Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh.

Please find the attached interview with Gangadhar sir in English.

This is part of my Positive Humans series. I have been writing about people who are an inspiration, and motivation with their attitude of gratitude, and ever-helping nature.  

6 Comments

      1. No problem 🙂 check out my blog when you get the chance ?

  1. This is a genuine and selfless act of service. Kudos to Mr Gangadhar! Thanks for sharing this post.

    1. Thanks a lot Indrapreet. People like Gangadhar show us what a selfless love and service is all about.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *