Shree Ganesh says: "However, he soon learned that this was far from reality. The land he had been gifted was dry and hilly, with the nearest water resource located downhill almost a kilometre away. Determined to be successful with his land, he began to speculate ways to extract water. He began by digging sideways into the surrounding hillsides in search of water, with the help of a pickaxe and a flower basket brought to him by his wife Lalitha. He often continued into the night, guided by the light of coconut oil deepas (lanterns). For months, he shuffled between digging the Suranaga (tunnel) and his paid job climbing for Arecanut. His mother, observing his efforts, gave him a curfew of 9pm for his safety. That first Suranaga (tunnel) eventually grew to over 75 feet long. Mahalinga carried on digging Surangas (tunnels) even after the first one collapsed during monsoon rains. The preceding tunnels did not yield water. His intuition guided him to pause and observe the condition the mud was in. Mahalinga was heartbroken when he ran into a big boulder after digging almost 75 feet into his fourth tunnel. Everyone in the village of Amaya began to question his sanity as he went on to dig the fifth suranaga. To his delight, he noticed moisture in this suranga, which encouraged him to start digging a sixth tunnel where he finally discovered precious water trickling around his feet. His smile grew wider when he observed water droplets bigger than the girth of his beedi. That evening, Lalitha and Mahalinga spoke at length before falling asleep about their mutual support with helping each other realise dreams that everyone else in their village had mocked. His unwavering determination often caused him anxiety, pain and doubt, but also led him to find out that more water lay waiting to be discovered. He began digging the 7th Suranaga, and at around 60 feet he found water. Mahalinga built a water catchment which today stands 15 feet wide and 30 feet long, with a height of almost 5 feet. He completed work on this catchment in the year 1986, after laying roughly 6000 laterite bricks singlehandedly."

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