Losing a child is a living nightmare for any parent. Manoj Wadhwa lost his 3-year-old son in an unfortunate pothole-related road accident six years ago. But he took inspiration from his son’s death and is now making sure no other kid loses life in a similar fashion.
No one can imagine what a parent goes through when they have to live with the unbearable pain of their child’s death. One such parent who bears such pain is Manoj Wadhwa.
6 years ago, Manoj lost his three-year-old son in an unfortunate accident caused due to potholes on the road. But, rather than drowning himself into his sorrow, he found a heartwarming way to channel his sorrow for the greater good. And we couldn’t resist ourselves from celebrating him.
After losing his son in a pothole-related road accident on the Delhi-Agra highway, Manoj Wadhwa hoped that authorities would fill them up so that no parents have to lose their baby. But, disappointed by the Haryana state authorities’ failure of fixing potholes on Faridabad roads, the telecom engineer Manoj and a few of his friends took it upon themselves to fill them.
To learn how to fill potholes, Wadhwa went through tutorials. And, then he reached the site with three bags of mixed bitumen and other necessary items.
In his noble and kind act, he was supported by two teams, Pothole Warriors and Pothole Raja. After brushing the site to pull out the dust, they poured the cold-mix to fill the potholes. Pothole Warriors and Pothole Raja carry out several campaigns to fill potholes to bring to light the inefficiency of municipal bodies and other road owning agencies.
While talking to TOI, Wadhwa mentioned:
“We chose Sunday (Republic Day) to fill potholes with the hope that this will wake up government agencies. If a few of us can fill potholes, why can’t government agencies and contractors do this small thing despite having all resources at their disposal.”
Recalling how a pothole on Delhi-Agra highway took his son away, he mentioned:
“Pavitra was sitting between me and my wife. I spotted a pool of water on the highway and applied brakes. As I lost balance, Pavitra fell on a sharp stone, which hit his chest. A vehicle coming from behind ran over my wife’s legs. Pavitra was declared brought dead when we reached hospital.
He would have been nine years now. Negligence of agencies ruined our happiness forever. I don’t want anyone else to go through this pain of losing a family member. Now, it’s a mission of life and I don’t get disheartened even if I don’t get very encouraging support from others.”
Since the loss of his child, he has been fighting a battle against the National Highways Authority of India and a private construction firm to make them accountable for their responsibility of fixing potholes.
At IFORHER, we are in awe of this father who is making sure that no one has to bid final goodbye to their dying child. We hope authorities would take notice of this problem and help Wadhwa with his noble and heart-touching mission.