When Dadarao Bilhore lost his 16-year-old son to a motorbike accident caused by a water-filled pothole on a flooded Mumbai road in 2015, grief could have sealed him shut. Instead, a month later, he walked out with a shovel. In the years since, he has filled more than 1,450 potholes by hand -- most of them being the kind a rider doesn't see until it's too late -- driven by a straightforward logic: "I have lost my kid; I don't want you to lose yours." His work has helped seed a citizen collective and a pothole-reporting app, as well as inspired a retired railway worker in another city to fill 1,500 potholes of his own. What Dadarao built from the worst moment of his life has been a quiet blessing for countless unknown strangers who walk, bike, and drive over streets smoothed over by a paternal love.
