Meet Gangadhara Tilak Katnam, the man who single-handedly fixed over 1,000 potholes in his hometown of Hyderabad, India. The 66-year-old pensioner has made it his mission to fix the city’s roads, earning himself the nickname ‘road doctor’.
Since 2011, the former railway engineer has been driving around the city every single day, looking for abandoned tar and gravel on roadsides. He collects the unclaimed material and uses it to fill potholes, at times spending his own pension money to do it. Tilak, who calls his work ‘Shramadaan’ (offering physical help), doesn’t confine himself to his neighborhood – he patches up every pothole he can find in the city.
Tilak’s wife was understandably upset by his activities. She worried for his health, and didn’t want him working in the hot sun. “She called my son down from the US to talk some sense into me,” Tilak said, amused. But when the son arrived, he was so impressed that he ended up helping Tilak instead, by setting up a website and Facebook page. As more and more residents got to know of ‘Shramadaan’, they began to show up and help Tilak fix the city’s potholes. Today, they even have a helpline number where people can call to complain about potholes in their areas.
