Residing and working in the premises of Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) of Patna, a gentleman who claims to be 111-year-old has an interesting story of struggle and passion.
Quite popular in the neighbourhood locality, Mahendra Yadav shares with iamin that he was born in the year 1904 in Gajipur area of Uttar Pradesh where he spent his childhood before moving to Calcutta, better known as Kolkata now. Locals in the neighbourhood verify his claims about his age.
Yadav, who moved to Patna in the year 1954, then bought a rickhshaw with savings of just Rs 200. “I have been earning my livelihood as a rickshaw puller ever since,” he says. The aged rickshaw-puller still ferries patients daily in the hospital premises.
The locals nearby swear by Yadav's self-esteem who has never accepted extra money as a mark of sympathy by his customers. “I have no family to call my own, so I am still working at this age. But that does not mean that I should be pitied at,” he says.
Owner of 7 Katha land (an unofficial measurement unit of land) in the Beur locality, Yadav says that he wants to set up a school on the land. “The value of the land is in crores. I am an illiterate myself so I understand that a needy child can be given the gift of illiteracy with such initiatives,” he explains.
Yadav had bought that piece of land in 1956 at a mere price of Rs.1,750. On many occasions people have turned up and have offered to keep him at his place claiming that he is their relative but Yadav understands that these fake relatives have only turned up to claim the land and hence has decided to live on his own.
A young soul in an old body, Yadav works hard everyday to realise his dream of setting up the school and a temple on his land.
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