Civil Engineering & Teaching Coexistance!

                                    

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“Often what we call development for some species, can be destruction for many other species”… Me.

I know these lines will suit better (read as right) by some hard-core environmentalists or conservationists & not a civil engg  plus builder like me but that doesn’t change the facts about the development, & this was the theme of my sharing. The occasion, which was actually an honor as I have been invited to deliver (share as per me) a speech in front of a group of Professors of Civil Eng of Polytechnic colleges across the State by my Professor friend Seema & her colleague Pro.Sindhu of Govt Polytechnic Pune, fondly called as GPP! When they said I can choose topic of my choice, I suggested as its ending session & most of the participants must be already overdosed with technical stuff(engineering topics) for five days, so I will prefer to share about something which may not be part of syllabus but is future of our civil engg branch & that is coexistence! They Immediately agreed & left it to me to cover the topic the way I wish, a rare thing & an honor too! As well Engineers Day which is celebrated in the Honor of Sir Visvesvaraya happens to be on 15t Sept i.e. very close by, so I decided to make a fusion of two things: Civil Engg & Coexistence! I will be covering this sharing the way I did pointers of PPT so as to make the renders understand the concept & importance of the aspect of sharing.

 

1 Civil Engg & Learning Coexistence

Diploma Faculty meet 12^th Sept 25

Sanjay Deshpande & team Sanjeevani with Jungle belles.

Govt Polytechnic Pune.

I deliberately mentioned Jungle Belles name also, as Civil Engg is science or say has a frame of rules & formulas but coexistence is a life style & you can't frame it on general scale but for that you will need support of some catalyst which deals with lifestyle of species which jungle belles did to the civil engineer in me!

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2 What is a Civil Engg?

“Someone who uses his/ her technical knowledge to make lives better by creating structures!”

Term “Lives” includes every Living Species, even Plants, Forests, Earth, Rivers, Hills, Lakes,  Ocean & every thing which either breathes or helps someone to breathe! Unfortunately, we have forgotten the basic definition of a civil engg as we are restricting the term “Lives” to “Human Lives” only! And this is the reason for the man- nature conflict we are witnessing (read as suffering) pf late more & more! You may have come across the term man -Animal conflict but it's a very narrow window, as humans are actually at war with nature & we the civil engineers are like an army of humans attacking nature. Though we don’t name it enemy, we don’t try to protect it while we build our structures, which in the end are like mass destruction weapons for the nature we need to understand & accept! It’s time to expand the definition of civil engg so we will think about making every living life comfortable by our structures, is my intention to have a dialogue with you.

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3 What they Teach Us in Colleges…

Concrete, Steel, Bricks, Structures, & Formulas about building Strong yet Dead Things! And using all the formulas & materials with the help of machinery like JCB, Bulldozer, Tower Cranes & such we build structures which we name , Buildings, Bridges, Dams, Canals, Jetty, Airport, Railways, Highways, Tunnels, Drainage & Water Treatment Plants, the list is unending! But unfortunately (again) these all are dead things & they don’t teach us all above dead things for the comfort of humans. No civil engg syllabus teaches us about biodiversity & our responsibility towards it & that’s the reason for so many other species getting extinct in just the last hundred years of our development. And all these species were sharing their home i.e. earth with us for thousands of years before that, this we are forgetting or ignoring, is my reason for sharing.

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4 Growth Vs Development

Growth is a natural phenomenon, development is shaping that phenomenon in a Healthy way, that is Sustainability! 

One we understand the true job of a civil engineer, then comes understanding growth via development. We all are forms of some life & every life has a basic instinct of survival. So, even an orphan human child thrown on the streets abandoned by his parents somehow learns to survive & grow in size but that growth is just part of ageing & not through development. Same way, if your biceps get hit by an accident & becomes swollen, will you call it growth, no, it's swelling, right? Same is with development as only when it’s done in the right way accommodating everybody associated with the earth & getting their share of space happens then its growth via development. Again, only a civil engineer can make this happen as we are the one who are the first line of development army & we dig, we build so we only can define right development & follow it!

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5 Destruction not Development!

What are we doing under the name of Development?

If you ask this question to yourself as an engineer & look around then you will realize the outcome of this development is, Floods, Deforestation,  Man-Animal Conflicts, Road -Kills, Species getting Extinct, Pollution & Natural Disasters! And if you think this is some Right-Wing Fanatic Environmentalist saying these words then sorry, I am a civil engineer & I have been constructing projects for the last 35 years & yet I am saying this! Though this doesn’t mean we (read as me) will stop building homes & go to Himalayas for Tapsya as my Prayashcitt (punishment for sins I have done) but what path I have done is, try to balance as much I can & that’s where civil engineering only going to help me as well the world, is my point of sharing! As we say sparrows has been moved away from the cities & there are no butterflies, & if this is the story of these two simplest species with minimum demands just don’t think about monkeys & Bharadwaj like species which were common sight around just two decades back

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6 What is Solution?

… Coexistence !

Well, this is not rocket science & as I said this is not a problem which can be solved by some formulas of structures or concrete technique, well, some parts yet but the solution to make right development in understanding coexistence! The way we humans need homes, roads, water, food, education , all such things (except luxury) every other living species also needs & we have to create that space in our structures. Give space to every life form as per its need & that’s the solution. We are not owners of Earth; we are Co-owners of it along with millions of other species. We have 'Civil Enggs’ for our comforts, what about other species, ask this question to ourselves & that's the first step on the path of coexistence!

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7 Plan your Project keeping in mind all the stakeholders of Planet Earth

No Cut-Paste Solution for Coexistence!

First of all, as we are speaking about coexistence then there are no fix sets of rules or formulas or AutoCAD drawings available to achieve it, understand it clearly. You can’t copy something done in a neighboring town or city in your project site , so definitely not looking towards western world or AI (present trend) for solutions! But look around & study what the world is doing as reference scale/ For e.g., Autobahn through Black Forest Germany Frogs Case. In our country right from house sparrows to honeybees so-many species need attention & the solution will change as per their needs & not we defining that aspect of their life! . For e.g. in Tadoba villagers around the forests were needed to go in open for nature’s call & as it's usually at early morning or late eve, man animal conflicts were maximum during those timings. So the government built public toilets within all villages but if these toilets don’t have proper water supply or sewage treatment backup then this solution will only remain for show & conflicts will keep on happening. This is just one small example to make you understand the approach towards coexistence right in planning & in execution till end!

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8 Understand Coexistence first as then only we can share!

How Can We Do It?

Make Nature as part of your Studies. Develop Philosophy of Coexistence in working right from planning  you build only what you plan in your mind & on paper before you start execution. And there have been wonderful examples in recent NH 44 highway connecting Nagpur Jabalpur is uplifted over the forest part around Pench to save the wild animals corridors & on Samruddhi Highway also there are Animal Crossing passages above the highway! Agreed no solution will stop hundred percent conflicts of wildlife & humans but it will definitely minimize it, that’s the key!

Films, Field trips, Interaction with Experts, Conservationists. Learn & Share.

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9 Teach your students to become a Right Human Being, not just a Civil Engineering Degree Holder!

And this is where the role of a civil engineering teacher becomes most vital as today what you will be teaching to your students will only get executed in the respective fields. So, make your students know their duty towards planet earth as a civil engg & tell them you have shown them a path, now they only have to build it & extend it because coexistence is not some finish line of a race but its way to living & failing to achieve it, we the civil engineers only will be held responsible by our future generations, choice I hours, adios with this note!

You can watch the presentation on youtube link along & plz share to make others aware, not just the civil engineers!

https://youtu.be/56xNo4wLUIg?si=u8r790TnxDhBVduB

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Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...

 

https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2024/12/right-home-buying-in-2025.html

https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

www.punecorporation.org

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com / https://junglebelles.in/

Fighting Air Pollution & Real Estate!

                                                     

                                  

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“The more we pollute the earth, the less we deserve to live on earth!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

Climate change and air pollution know no borders, and antibiotics resistance respects no boundaries. Bacteria from Africa can make people in America sick. The burning of Indonesian forests can keep Asia gasping for breath.

--Rohini Nilekani

 

I have already written on this subject & has decided (like millions of other countrymen) not to write on it again as nothing will change but sometimes I feel like King Vikram who despite knowing that he isn’t going to succeed in conquering the might Vetal (plz google about Vikram & Vetal, if you are that dump or busy not to know about these two characters’) yet keep on carrying him on his shoulders & the story went on for ages, at-last from my childhood its still going! Though barring the efforts of writing nothing is common between me & Kin Vetal as after all he was a great king & in his kingdom his word was final which is not the case with me, yet the determination keeps me dragging (read as frustration) & here we are! And then it was a pleasant surprise when I get an invite by PMC (Pune Municipal Corporation) for a meeting about air pollution which is trigger point for this sharing! The meeting was about setting up measuring air pollution index at construction sites & reason is the authorities (on basis of reports) thinks ongoing construction sites are one of the main causes of increased air pollution in the city. Though that is not totally wrong but I will comment on that aspect later, first let’s focus on the meeting. There were PMC authorities & representees of developers as well many people from Air Sensor manufacturers. The subject was fixing these pollution measuring instruments at ongoing construction sites to keep a check on air quality index. It's good thought & not at all a new thing as in developed countries this is a standard practice! We went through the presentations & the meeting was concluded with acceptance of the problem as well as forming a task force for the same which will study the subject in depth & submit a report for further line of action. I said I will send my suggestion about the same & here they are… (few things may seem a bit too technical but so is the subject).

 

1.Define categories of the buildings not on sq ft but on layout of the project.

2.Make zones of the city pertaining to existing pollution levels i.e. pollution index before the project starts as unless that’s known how we can decide whether the project has added in pollution & how much. For e.g. if a project is coming right at Nal Stop karve road then there already the air quality is poor because of the exhausts of millions of vehicles while if a building is coming up in suburbs where air is yet normal, so these two projects must be treated separately.

3.Air Pollution depends on stages of construction also as in early stages where there is excavation or demolition of existing buildings, generation of dust is more which is medium while casting of slab & practically nil when just shuttering work is going on. In all such stages if by just going via few days readings we may not know the real situation, in nutshell we will have to formulate the system for deciding parameters of the readings we get as per the stages of construction.

4.Air pollution is a tricky thing & it depends a lot on wind conditions as if the winds push one location dust particle away then the same winds can carry the pollutants to a certain location which can be our project’s site. This aspect we must keep in mind. Same is applicable with the season’s effect of readings as in summer air is lighter & air index is better as hot air gets lighter & pushes the dust up in sky while in winter air gets heavy & exactly reverse effects happens making air near to ground polluted.

5.As well when construction material such as sand or khadi or cement is being unloaded or being moved with the site again these materials have got fine particles of dust & the index may go high very temporarily. At the same time is a multi-storeyed building pollution levels can change as per the activities floor wise as if tiling/ internal plaster is going on some floors there the air will have more suspended particles while other floors where these activities are complete will show minimum & no pollution.

6.The quality or say type of air pollution also is important as site construction site there are no hazardous chemical superfine particles but dust mostly & it settles down with time unlike chemical particles which lingers in air for a lot more time as well travels a long distance with air.

7.We haven’t thought about the present measures we are using which makes the dust generated by the project work remain in the premise of the project which can give wrong results of air quality within the project.

8.Remedial measures vs effect on air quality is also something we need to take in to account as right from basking the entire external surface to sprinklers are not good practises for the health of the site staff especially when project is located on heavy traffic roads & led particles as well carbon monoxide levels are already high around the project site.

9.LED ScreenDisplay outside the project of mentioning air quality at project site can lead to serious misunderstanding among common people who don't know the technicalities of the subject & create nuisance value for the project as well for PMC & local authorities.

10. We must take in consideration adjoining project work status as well as stages as there can be conflicting readings because of overlapping activities, even because of projects in surroundings depending on season/ weather/ wind direction.

11.We must have proper anti air pollution measures designed as well executed at site as per all these situations & stages as well have a policy about which readings will be leading to what course of action & then only start the measuring of the air pollution index. And this task force committee must be in place forever to take cognizance of any complaint before acting on Suo Moto on the ongoing project!

 

Now, these are my suggestions & sure there may be many more or a few as the subject is multidimensional, so let’s focus on the actual aspect of air pollution & role of construction industry in it! In Pune as we all know there are nearly half million (sure more) vehicles & even if fifty percent of them are on road at any given hour, then the exhaust through their engines is a major contributor to the air pollution & what we are going to do about it? At the same time barring Diwali baring fire crackers is the latest fashion & these new types of fire crackers which go high up in air & create beautiful fireworks also generates loads of smoke i.e. again air pollution. And I am sure one such fire cracker is worth unloading ten or more dust trucks, so much smoke is created & again the dust at construction site is not hazardous as its mostly from natural material (except cement) but smoke for exhausts of vehicles & fire crackers is lot more deadly is a fact which a kid also knows & what are we going to do about it, is my question?

The problem of being a builder is, when the subject is like air pollution then if you mention other factors such as private vehicles’ exhausts & fire crackers then immediately you are tagged as saving your skin or hiding your faults by pointing fingers at others but that doesn’t change the facts, right? I am not justifying air pollution by construction works, what I am saying is, unlike vehicles or fire crackers which are here all year along & forever, air pollution at sites is temporary as once the building is complete it won’t pollute our air; so just keep this aspect while keeping a check on air pollution index at construction sites! And going by the attitude of authorities (read as Govt) towards real estate, all facts are neglected when there is any trouble & the first action with slightest of wrong things (here readings of air quality index) is, shut down the site! This is why we need to make a policy which will cover all loose ends as well as facts about construction sites, is the reason for my sharing! At the same time, even going as per the reports, construction sites are only 20 % or such a contributor to the air pollution of the city & as the work completes the stop polluting air is a fact. As well as these sites which also plants trees which is the only yes only real air cleaner we can have, so unless we don’t complete the buildings, we won’t be having new plantations too, this aspect of real estate also we have to keep in mind. To conclude I will only say this, whatever we create on this earth which is not natural is bound to pollute not just air but every natural resource is a fact we can’t deny but we all are jointly responsible for creation of every such thing, let’s keep that in mind & fight (read as make policies) together or any such policy will be on paper just to save every entity but nature, adios with this warning!

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Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...

 

https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2024/12/right-home-buying-in-2025.html

https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

www.punecorporation.org

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com / https://junglebelles.in/

Illegal Buildings, Smart Villages & Trump Tatya!

 

 

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“A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it, and never makes that mistake again. But a wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether… Roy H. Williams

“We need a president with tremendous intelligence, smart, cunning, strength and stamina” … Donald Trump

“Smartness is being able to survive with all odds around” … Me.

Roy Hollister Williams is a bestselling author and marketing consultant best known for his Wizard of Ads trilogy. Another name the world was knowing already but now one of the most talked about i.e. Donald Trump alias Trump Tatya, President of USA & third one is mine, Mr Nobody (not sarcasm but fact) & my words are the outcome of the situation most of us are living in! Ohk, about the heading which is weird (I know) because what's the relevance of Smart Villages, Illegal Constructions & Trump effect with each other is any Smart person will ask but then Smartness & Wiseness are two different aspects of human nature, so be it. The common connection is, all above three terms were in news on the front page for their own reasons, unfortunately making negative waves & as usual we feel helpless if we feel something about it in the first place by reading all these news. Ok, let me share why I said so as the illegal construction is news because recently when the entire State (Maharashtra) was busy in welcoming Ganpati Bappa, a building in Virar, western suburb of Aamchi Mumbai collapsed taking seventeen lives & leaving many more injured & homeless. In the second news Hon CM has announced that the govt will make some three thousand villages Smart & third is about Trump tatya tightening the noose around our country’s neck by increasing import tariff in USA on many Indian manufactured commodities & our govt countering this moves! Let me confess, I am some authority on the first subject i.e. illegal constructions as I am a builder for my earnings & I have no shame in admitting that but pride! About second news, Smart Villages, I have some say as I am a civil engg & development is part of my studies & about third topic i.e. foreign trade I am a zero but as a businessman I have some say of my own which I feel like sharing (as that’s all I can do, sarcasm)! And then I will share how all these three things are related by the same thread!

First, a fifteen year old illegal building collapsed & many of its residents died, as usual govt arrested (or booked, what difference it makes) the builder & Hon Chief Minister told the media that govt won’t tolerate illegal construction & builders doing so! Great, but if I remember, the very same govt (read as State Govt, whichsoever party may be there) has made a writ-petition in High Court to regularize millions of illegal constructions in Mumbai, Pune & Thane belt on the grounds of right of owning a home to poor, which are already living in such buildings, then why the builder of such building has been arrested, right? And if the builder is arrested then why not minister of that dept as well all related officers are moving freely as they too are equally guilty in allowing such illegal building which was standing there for nearly fifteen years & not just that, even the Juridical System also should be questioned (can’t say punish courts) as what they were doing as if they can take Suo-Moto action in many cases (treatment of Chota Mataka named tiger) on their own, why not in illegal buildings’ matter? At the same time why such illegal buildings come into existence in the first place as unless there is demand, no product can survive; so, who is responsible for failure of legal buildings affordability which makes entry to the illegal homes or say need of such homes, right?

Then let’s have a look at the announcement of Smart Villages, as on the other side Central Govt has closed-down the Smart City mission recently without giving any statistics about money spent & outcome on the said mission in the last eight or nine years! Though one thing is sure, the Smart City Mission is a failure because or else going by the present trend had there been even slightest success in any form then we would have full page advertises, social media flood of posts about these projects & celebrations but nothing of it happened & silently the Mission Smart City was winded means it’s a failure. And if we can't make Smart things successful in overflowing populated cities, how we will be making it possible in villages which are already deserted is my question? And before that have we defined what kind of Smartness we are going to provide in villages & is it needed, rather first ask what villagers need & then provide it as a classic example is millions of people joining some reservation procession & all of them are from villages, what it indicates? Well, it indicates the people in villages doesn’t need smart phones or web check-in or online 7/12 but they need roads, water, education, jobs & right support of infrastructure for survival, if we focus on that then it will be a real Smart Mission for the villages or else it will be Smart Village Mission by the Fools! As, at present not just villages but even towns are running towards Pune, Mumbai & Thane for not job but for mere survival & only those who are too unskilled or lazy or old are staying back in these villages on the mercy of the govt or family members who are working in some big city! What use of Smartness to them, is my question to the govt?

And third point is Trum Tatyas’ tariff bomb which seems more devastating than nuclear bomb & our leaders’ (are they really, sarcasm) reaction or comments on it. First & foremost, what Mr Trump act or speak, we have no control over it, let's admit it & frankly why he is doing it & what he should do instead that’s none of our business because he is not an Indian, to think the way we think about our country. And even if Trump is doing wrong (read as foolishness) then that’s his countrymen’s choice or right to do anything about it & not ours as we are not American citizens. Rather it's important now that what we do & how, to tackle with what Trump Tatya has done to us! It’s a war & in any war, you don’t hold the gun of the enemy or the opponent, so when he fires at you, all you can do is, decide whether to duck the bullet, or run away or take shelter or surrender or return the fire, right? Similarly, our govt may be doing or should do & our PM has already said “Buy Swadeshi,” means we must try to reduce the damage of unsold (read as unexported) goods which won’t be now send to USA & only if we buy them then the loss of our fellow countrymen will be recovered or reduced, is what my understanding? At the same time as a businessman, I understand this also a bit, because the rate at which these goods were getting sold in the USA was higher than the price these goods would have fetched here, that’s why the manufacturers were exporting these goods is simple logic!

Now my question to the Govt is, what is it actually doing to make the manufacturers promote their goods here & sell at such price that it will be affordable to both i.e. the buyers & the seller too! And answer is nothing (well I have some different terminology in mind but this is gentlemen’s platform) as where is so called One Window System for all the clearances for every business, which every govt announces & that window never opens & that’s where losses start for any business even before it starts! As may it be real estate or setting up an industry or even starting a small eating joint, look at the list of NOC’s & approvals & the grind the person has to go through to obtain these even to start something & there lies the reason why our brains are running to western world! If at all govt wants to fight with the USA then the way is to improve the system here in our own country which makes production of goods. This is the reason why millions join processions for reservation of some thousand jobs rather than trying to become entrepreneurs as they know they can fight with govt for reservation but not to get NOC’s for their small startups! Here if I put on a small banner advertising my project on my own site immediately the notice comes with a penalty of some local-body but every footpath is blocked by illegal hording of some small-time leader nobody dares to remove them & the govt expects me to make business, earn money & pay taxes! Here in real estate, jokes like compulsion of getting a non-agriculture certificate for a land where a govt sanctioned building is standing, can happen. And here in real estate only a joke can happen, where even if I dug foundation for my building it's tagged under mining excavation & I am needed to obtain NOC after paying fees for dumping it happens & when the local body has already taken deposit from me for the same! This is where all three subjects which I mentioned in the heading, are tied together & that thread is, Foolishness of Govt in understanding the needs of the common citizens & making policies accordingly! Today in our country the youngsters are afraid of becoming businessmen not because they don’t believe in their talent or ideas & lack hard-work but they are afraid of the system of their own country which kills such talent & ideas under the name of govt procedure & NOC Raj! Here, on one hand our govt doesn’t do anything about Ease of Doing Business in real estate, rather makes efforts to promote illegal homes by legalizing it & on other side expects the builders (which are building legal buildings) to sell their homes at cheaper price! Here, our govt take decades to make development plans & then cancels it in a single day for their own political reasons & expects builders to provide affordable legal homes to masses but takes no responsibility or providing basic infrastructure like water or drainage or power, & the list is longer than Hanumanji's Punchh, this is the reason, our own country’s businessmen neither can make affordable legal homes or products nor our remaining countrymen can afford to buy them! This was my reason of sharing Hon PM Sir, if you really want to take head-on Trump Tatya & his country &  if you really wish to give legal & safe homes to every citizen & make them Smart then start from the system named govt, irrespective of party or else Smart Missions will remain only in agenda, on the ground there will be only illegal buildings to stay & every brain in this country will join the queue of H1B line kneeling in-front of Trump Tatya, adios with this warning!

 

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Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...

 

https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2024/12/right-home-buying-in-2025.html

https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

www.punecorporation.org

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com / https://junglebelles.in/