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Gangadhara Tilak Katnam Introduction Gangadhara Tilak Katnam is a 67 year old retired railway officer born on 21 October, 1948 in a farmer's family in Yernaduem village in the West Godavari district in Hyderabad completed his education in SMVM Polytechnic, tanku. His name was bestowed upon him by his grandfather. A dry borewell sprang to life on the day Tilak was born in Yernagudem village – ergo, ‘Ganga’ symbolizing the River Ganga and ‘Tilak’ was added because of his family’s immense respect for freedom leader Bal Gangadhar Tilak. He is famously known as the doctor of potholes since he is on a mission of repairing the potholes. He married to Venkateshwari Katnam on 9th February 1973.

Early Life Gangadhara Tilak Katnam was a senior section engineer in south central railways. He has dedicated in 35 year of service in railways. On October 2008 Tilak retired from his railway job. After retirement he spent some time in 2009 with his son in USA. After his return in January 2010 he got an job opportunity to work with a IT firm as software design consultant with the monthly income of 70000 rupees in Hyderabad and he accepted that but a incident occurred on the very first day travel to the new office that changed katnam’s destiny.

Born: October 21, 1948 Nationality: Indian Education: Sri Mullapudi Venkataraya Memorial Polytechnic College, Tanku Founded: Shramadaan Award: Unsung hero award

Incident that shook him On 2010 Mr. Tilak was on his first day travel to his new office in his Fiat car and the road next to his house was full of potholes. He tried his maximum to drive fastidiously in that potholed street, but unfortunately, he ended up driving into a pothole and a school girl was dirtied with a splash of muddy water. Even the mother of that girl wasn’t spared. Tilak immediately got down from the automotive and apologized to both of them for the mishap. Tilak was very upset with the situation. He at once arranged for some kind of cement by paying 4200 INR from his pocket and decided to replenish the potholes. This incidence became a precursor for a bigger role that he is playing today as ‘Doctor of potholes’ on Hyderabad streets. Another incidence that strengthened the innate urge in him to free the roads from potholes was when he witnessed a road accident where a young man lost both his limbs. Another accident severely damaged an Auto rickshaw and passengers were severely injured. In both the cases, it wasn’t reckless or rash driving that caused the accident, but it was the bad shape of road that was the culprit. Unlike most of us, Tilak didn’t turn a blind eye on such issues but strengthen him to fight for the cause of accident-free roads. Journey as doctor of potholes. It was on 19TH January, 2010 that Tilak decided to take up the mission of repairing of potholes on weekends. Later on 31st July, 2011 he decided to quit his job at IT company and took hold of the role of full time pothole repairer. Daily he invests 500 rupees as a fuel expense for his car and start hunting for potholes. He carries at least 8 to 10 bags full of tar mixed with gravel and wherever he spots a pothole he fills it. Till 19th January 2019 he has completely repaired approximately 1356 potholes and has obtained No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the home ministry to carry spade and crowbar in his car. Tilak’s son also approached the GHMC commissioner and told him about Tilak’s work. The Commissioner tried dissuading Tilak with an assurance that they would fix the problems. However, Tilak refused to budge and the GHMC joined hands with the initiative. From June 2012, The GHMC is providing Tilak and his initiative with resources and materials required to fill potholes. Tilak would go on spending 25000 per month to fill up potholes but after GHMC support, he would now spend 15000 to 20000 to fill up the potholes.

Awards and Honours On 9th January 2019, he attended road safety meeting as chief guest at Sitara Grand, Kukatpally, Hyderabad organised by Rotarians 3150 district. Chennai Rotarians and Royal Odessy from Chennai who are touring seven states on ‘Road Safety drive’ participated in this special campaign on Road safety where Tilak briefed created an awareness among the citizens of Hyderabad about traffic rules. On 5th December, 2018 Gangadhara Tilak received unsung Hero Award from Sri Bana Singh Param, a retired Indian soldier and a awardee of Param Vir Chakra at Trichy, Tamil Nadu. He has even appeared in TEDx Talk held in Mumbai.

Shramadaan: Tilak’s belief Shramadaan is a compassionate long journey started by Sri. Gangadhara Tilak Katnam on January 2009, who stands as an example to the statement “be the change that you wish to see in the world.” He believes that once in a week or in a month or in a year people should do shramadaan. For him Nation comes first and he considers that work is worship. Recently Aditya Birla Capital allotted a page (June) in their 2019 New year calendar and forwarded the message of Shramadaan with the photo of Gangadhara. The task that he has been doing every day without fail has not been easy. His wife, Venkateswari Katnam was not happy with his shramadaan. She called her son, Ravi, a software engineer in US, to stop Gangadhara. But when Ravi saw the need of such work, he started financially supporting his father to continue the work. Ravi has also developed an app for Gangadhara, in which people can send the location of potholes spotted by them and Gangadhara would go on to fill it.

References 1)	http://www.shramadaan.org/ 2)	https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/road-doctor-hyderabad-man-who-quit-his-job-fix-potholes-his-pension-money ( Published by Nitin B. on June 04, 2015 ) 3)	https://www.thebetterindia.com/24115/67-year-old-man-used-his-pension-to-fill-dangerous-potholes-of-hyderabad-roads/ ( Published by Shreya Pareek on June 3, 2015) 4)	https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35966747 ( Published on April 17, 2016) 5)	http://jayhind.co.in/saving-you-the-bumpy-ride/ 6)	https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/taking-the-road-less-travelled/article3505998.ece (Updated on July 12, 2016) 7)	http://achhikhabre.com/gangadhara-tilak-katnam-fills-potholes-on-roads/ (Published by Munmi Bora on June 11, 2015) 8)	https://www.iamgreatindian.com/great-indian-gangadhara-tilak-katnam-railroad-officer-make-roads-free-potholes/ ( Published on July 21, 2017) 9)	http://post.jagran.com/meet-gangadhara-tilak-katnam-a-retired-railway-employee-who-repairs-potholes-with-his-pension-1433410900 10)	https://www.facebook.com/tilak21 11)	http://kalamfanclub.com