Kamleshwari Singh sits next to his pond. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Manikpur (Barh), May 29: This is the story of an old man and the pond.

It took Kamleshwari Singh all of seven years to dig one in his village, 80 km from Patna. Being too weak and too old to use a spade, he used a trowel.

People dismissed him as “demented” and children laughed and called him talabi baba.

But now that the 62-year-old has actually dug the pond single-handed, people are streaming into the village to take a look at his handiwork.

An impressed sub-divisional magistrate of Barh, Vandana Preyasi, said: “We will soon felicitate him and recommend his name for a state government award.”

Public health and engineering minister Prem Kumar said: “I will write to the Patna district magistrate to extend all possible help.”

The exploit is being compared with Dasrath Manjhi’s feat in Gaya, where he, again single-handed, had in the eighties cut through a hill a road that freed villagers from going round the hill.

Seven years ago, unknown assailants had gunned down Singh’s 26-year-old son Siyaram. Several false cases, claims the old man, were lodged against him, forcing him to sell much of his farmland.

While the second son went off in search of work to Punjab, the old man was saddled with two women ? his elder son’s widow and the younger son son’s wife ? and their children.

It was then that the crestfallen Singh woke up one midnight and resolved to “do something”. He went to his plot near the house and started digging with the help of a spade.

His hands gave up after an hour. But Singh did not.

He took up a trowel, a khurpi, used by gardeners, and found himself comfortable with it. Since then, for the last seven years, he has been digging virtually non-stop, with breaks for food and sleep.

The younger son, Jairam, on a short visit home, proudly declares that his father never fell ill during this time, attributing it to some divine intervention. The old man himself mumbled that he did not expect anything out of his toil. But he feels a sense of satisfaction and exclaimed: “Aaj atma juda gele, beta (My soul is today at peace).”

The 60-foot-by-60-foot pond, with a depth of 25 feet, is “almost ready” though the scorching summer sun has forced the water level to recede to less than five feet. The rain, Singh hopes, will fill the pond again and provide a perennial source of irrigation to the village, which is barely 12 km away from the river but does not have even a single irrigation canal to water its land.

The pond, lined by 40 trees bearing mangoes, jackfruit and black berries, and some teak trees, has become the favourite haunt of villagers who are now eager to lend a helping hand and dispense free advice. But Singh would have none of it.

Watching the old man at work with the trowel, Ramratan Singh says a borewell dug inside the pond will help reduce the villagers’ dependence on a “good monsoon”.