Chandni Chowk Fly-Over, Noida Towers & Society!

 

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“Traffic congestion is caused by vehicles, not by people in themselves.” … Jane Jacobs

I owe half of my sharing to Jane as what I wanted to say in hundreds of the words that she tells in mere ten words! But then that’s why she is the author of a book “The Death & Life of Great American Cities” which is a bible, Geeta, & whatever you can call it for Urban Planning & as usual problem is neither our citizens nor our rulers believe in reading such books or referring the content these wisdom treasures carries & outcome is, all we do is blame each other for any civic problem we face! If you are confused about which civic problem, recently the headline news may make you think, if Chandni Chowk flyover is completed then all the city’s traffic problems will be solved, such is the hype. Well, this Chandni Chowk is nothing to do with Delhi’s famous place with same name but is a crossing over Mumbai-Bengaluru highway on western (Kothrud) side of Pune city at which new fly over work is going on (for ages, sarcastic me) & traffic has become chaos for the commuters from that stretch! Now one may say what’s so big deal in it, like our dear SRK (don’t ask who is he plz), “bade bade Shaherome, chote chote hadase hote rahete hai” i.e., in big city’s small accidents keep happening, here accident is used as analogy & read it as inconvenience to the citizens!

Well, now you have been introduced to the subject of the sharing (partially) then you will say development work are part of the growth & during their construction some inconvenience is bound to happen as one can’t build a bridge or a road or Metro line or a flyover overnight with a magic wand & as a civil engineer by myself, I agree with this logic hundred percent! But then it's not about just one fly over or inconvenience caused while building it but it's about our attitude towards the entire process named development in & around cities, is the matter of sharing. As for last two years that work is going on in Chandni Chowk which is a major junction or hub for millions of commuters but it took Hon Chief Minister’s convoy getting stuck in the traffic jam this work causes every day, to speed up the steps required to reduce the traffic jam, is the matter of my sharing! And now the present connecting bridge will be demolished as Noida Towers (its a in phrase at present) is what Hon CM announced & as usual in Pune this also went into controversy. I will come to reference of Noida Towers later but let’s look at our attitude towards public works at large especially when they are directly related to the citizens day to day life & road or fly over or Metro is at the core of it in a city like Pune where numbers of vehicles are more than number of people living in it.

This bitter fact about the millions of the private vehicles needed to be on the roads is the first & foremost failure of Pune as a city, as right from BRT (plz don’t ask the longform), to merging PMC & PCMC public bus service to HCMTR (again, no long form plz) to, to Riverside Road to Metro routes & now Chandni Chowk & yes University Chowk Grade Separator, so many options have been tried (and has failed)  & all these on the hard-earned public tax money staying in legal homes in this city (about legal homes, later)! And yet this city is getting choked everyday everywhere in the traffic, it’s a shame for all the so-called educated & wise citizens of Pune & I mean each of us, not just govt! The very reason is we are trying to accommodate more vehicles than reducing them as Jane Jacob says, it’s the vehicles which cause the traffic jams & not the people. I am sorry Jane, I differ here with your logic about the traffic (for the first time with you), as your law is right but it’s the few people who are responsible to force other many people use the vehicles which in turn causes the traffic jams, so it’s not the vehicles but the people only, are responsible for traffic jams, is the fact for Pune city at least! And then it’s the “Chalta hai” attitude of our govt & Janata which again is the result that the development works keeps going for years & till they get complete the basic purpose is defeated, Satara Highway is classic example of it as the time one stretch of the road gets functional the next stretch of the road needs repairing, making the journey a nightmare! At the same time while such works are going on the very Govt which hangs private industries (read as builders) for any mishap at their respective workplaces turns a blind eye, ear, nose towards their own safety norms. If you are so naïve not to believe me, then walk on Karve Road or Baner Road where Metro work is going on (if you come back safely) & share your view about road safety to me. No wonder the city witnesses nearly 300 plus deaths on the road (in one month) & nearly 100 nos. of them are pedestrians who have no choice but walk on the roads without any safety gear for them! And on top of it ignorant attitude of the two & four-wheeler drivers towards the pedestrians or towards entire traffic rules, I deliberately excluded 3-wheeler drivers i.e., our aur rikshaws, as they think they are above any traffic rules so no use in considering them!

Need of the time was, is & will be a strong, safe, dedicated, disciplined public transport in place & unfortunately we have PMPML but we don’t have someone who will make few people in the system know the importance of this weapon against traffic jams, that’s the object of my sharing! As having PMPML in place in its present status in the city as traffic solution is like having a watch-dog of good breed in the home but it’s tied all the time, not given proper food & not allowed to bark yet when the theft happens then only the dog is blamed for negligence in the duty of guarding the home! Again, if you don’t believe me then try travelling by PMPML bus on a busy work day morning or evening time, right from bus stops to time table everything is a mess & yet I congratulate to all those who travels by PMPML as well its personnel (read as, staff) who are part of this system to keep it working or else Pune roads would have been, God knows what!

And then there was another news which made the headlines here in Pune as well in Maharashtra also as it was about demolition of Noida Towers by muffled inward blasting. These were illegal buildings in Noida, UP & has been ordered by Hon Supreme Court to demolish but the legal fight went for nearly 15 years. Joke is, in this country getting an order to demolish an illegal building takes 15 years (that also is early, actually) but the order to demolish a legally built bridge or fly-over with public money, takes just a minute! As usual there were Memes & Jokes on social media about demolition of these towers & sadly right from our Hon CM to even Hon High Court judges started giving example of demolition of these buildings! Where are we heading guys, is it some Al-Qaeda or Don Corleone giving threat by using such illegal building’s demolition as a set example, come-on, how such buildings can ever come in the existence in the first place that their demolition the govt portraying as victory or success, can someone ask this question to the system, at least the builders must ask this who built (or try to build) by following the law (read as, laws)? And who has stopped the govt to demolish every illegal structure like the Noida Towers but before that, think of demolishing the system which allows such illegal buildings to be built, is what I will say!

Its high-time to build a system which will stop giving birth to illegal buildings & stop forcing people to use private vehicles for their daily uses or else Jane will have to write her new book about “Death of the Cities in India” & we will be definitely topping the list Punekars, mind it!

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Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about real estate in Pune at You Tube link below..

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4xX7eopH5o&t=5s

 

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

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2021/09/choosing-right-home.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2021/09/blog-post_21.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

Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..

https://secure.mygov.in/

Think Green, Think Life

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

Property Exhibitions, Advertising, Real Estate & Clients!

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“Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but nobody else does.” …  Stuart Henderson Britt

Well, Britt was the first person to receive a dual appointment at Northwestern University as Professor of Marketing in the School of Commerce and Professor of Advertising in the Medill School of Journalism & no wonder he can explain the importance of marketing in such a simple & witty way! And that is why no wonder the Americans are known for their aggressive & innovative ways of marketing because of the minds like Britt at their service! The reason I remembered this quote about marketing or advertising is actually for three things, one is a discussion at my friend’s company (gift Galore) for brainstorming session about marketing & costs (for all industries), second is about participating in exhibitions of real estate (which are mushrooming a lot) & third is request from a senior developer who happens to be my teacher also in engg about writing few words for Credai’s upcoming exhibition (of course of real estate). And let me admit at the start (or say confess) I am not a marketing person or a sales person rather in my nearly ten generations from my mom’s or dad’s side nobody has even sold an egg or a biscuit package in their life & I am happy to plan & build the homes as an engineer. But then you may build the homes like Taj Mahal & yet you need to sell them also or else they really will end up like Taj Mahal which is a tomb & not residence (apartment) if you know the history, right?

Here is where real estate marketing followed by sales comes in the picture. And trust me, just a decade back (not even a decade actually) marketing of the projects (read as homes in every form) was not at all a problem for the real estate rather sales were the only front known to this industry. Indeed, advertising was there but barring a few builders (can’t say brands to them) most of the real estate advertising was meant for sale only. Now, one will ask what’s the difference & let me tell you I am not the authority but my logical reply or answer is, the advertise which you make to generate the inquiries for your home or brand or workmanship which creates curiosity among the home buyers or make people to think about buying a home from you, is marketing. And when the advertisement directly helps you in sale of the homes you are making can be considered as sales in itself, such was the scene as all what the developer has to do is make a lunch advertise campaign of the project & sale used to follow & gone are those golden days is fact! And the advertisement campaign was simple, some hoardings at prime location, glossy brochure of the project, full page jacket ads on front pages of newspapers & posh sales office & you are done with the sale! Few builders used 3-D views & walk through but even that was spending for ego & never meant for sales as that was not necessary & if those who have gone through those days of real estate, I am sure must be smiling to themselves as that was golden era of real estate where everything used to get sold (marketing or no marketing), so who needed marketing or branding, right?

Come 2014 (I am not referring to political change) & slowly things started to change as supply demand difference wasn’t much & buying power of end user of homes got reduced as well the expenses graph kept rising up, the law started tightening grip on real estate deals (RERA) & so did the policies. FSI started raining & the landlords wanted their cut of the rainfall & so wanted every person associated with real estate & by the time builders started realizing all that shines isn’t gold, it was too late for many! Now the customers are also aware about market scenario i.e., aspects such as rates, availability or inventory of homes (thanks to google & co.) & smell the kill, as well are patient not to jump on the deal like its last deal of the life instead the customer waits till the builder bleed & surrenders to the home buyers demands! The scene in the real estate, is just like that of in the forest where every deer can run faster than the tiger. Yet when its summer time the tiger silently waits at a water hole & though the deer knows there is the tiger waiting for the kill & most deer prefers to wait till the tiger goes away, some deer surrenders to the thirst & dares to go to water hole thinking it can outrun the tiger & eventually ends up in the stomach of the tiger! Only difference between the jungle & real estate is this is concrete jungle but laws are the same & we all know who is the tiger at present in the real estate & who are the deer! And on all such backgrounds now the builders have to reach out for the customers & here is where marketing via advertising becomes more important for real estate than ever in the past. As the customers never has their trust in the builders (sorry folks, no offence, this is the fact, accept it) & that’s why for real estate first & foremost thing now is, to make the clients believe in your capacity to give them what they want than just advertising the product i.e., the home! And for that find the avenues to reach the home buyers (read as, right avenues) as no more the buying age group is fifty plus & hooked to conventional media (read as, newspapers or TV) but this is age group of thirties we are looking at & they get bored very fast with everything which includes any particular media also!

Now, apart from conventional media (newspaper, hoarding , exhibitions etc) you can reach to the customers through OTT Platforms, Mobile Phones (SMS/WhatsApp), Social Media sites (Insta, FB), News Media, Digital News Media, Radio & what not, I think only Akashwani is remaining to get used for advertising (I meant literally from mythology & not our Govt radio channel). And on top of all these, FB has already opened up another avenue i.e., Metaverse which is hailed as the future of advertising. But among all these avenues I still say when its home then physical communication or connection still remains the strongest medium when the product is a home as you can reach virtually to the home buyer yet the home, he is going to live in along with his family is going to be very much real & so are the people who are going to build that real home! And for this one sure way is exhibition as here you can actually meet the people (read as, team) who is going to make your dream home a reality & trust me for many the home will always be that special just once in a lifetime buy as that is what makes the home a special commodity than every other commodity in the market! It’s not just about the price it’s about the experience the home named commodity gives you but here is where your generations are going to grow & this is your life time’s investment also & just the way you can’t buy vegetables unless you feel their freshness touch by your fingers same way one has to feel the home before buy.

And how you can feel your future home, answer is very simple, by physical interaction with the people building that home as well knowing their completed projects (read as, homes) & this can be possible only by visiting the office of the builder as well their projects, right? But unless you don’t know where to look & whom to meet, how you can randomly visit some builder’s office or the project & here is where real estate exhibitions still rule the conventional advertising medium by creating a platform where many builders can be accessible to one single homebuyer in the physical form! Indeed, the numbers of the exhibitions I mean, real physical exhibitions are getting reduced in comparison to the past but that’s because we underestimate the power of our own product & specialness, is my personal opinion. In the exhibition you may not be able to see the project much better than the virtual media but you can see or feel something which no online world will make you able to do & that is feeling the personal bond or touch.

Dear homebuyers, visit the exhibition not to get information of the project but to get the information of the team you are going to enter in the deal with as unless you don’t speak with salesman, marketing guys, the builder himself, look in to their eyes, see their body language & the way they meet you, how you are going to trust them to put all your savings in their hands, is the question I will ask you And for that real, physical exhibitions are a must for the real estate buyers as well the builders!

As for the builders, I will share one thing, try to remain as much accessible to your clients existing as well future in physical form as well keep the bond alive through physical medium. May it be by a get-together over cup of tea, a concert organized for the clients, an exhibition or even a birthday card but always try to use a physical bond to connect with your clients as you can give them living experience through media like Metaverse but you can’t give them a living, that comes via only a real physical brick & mortar made home, mind it!

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Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about real estate in Pune at You Tube link below..

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4xX7eopH5o&t=5s

 

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

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2021/09/choosing-right-home.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2021/09/blog-post_21.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

Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..

https://secure.mygov.in/

Think Green, Think Life

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

Nature, Buildings, Tigers & Millennium School Kids!

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“Children need to get a high-quality education, avoid violence and the criminal-justice system, and gain jobs. But they deserve more. We want them to learn not only reading and math but fairness, caring for nature, self-respect, family commitment, and civic duty” … Colin Powell

General Colin Luther Powell was an American politician, statesman, diplomat, and United States Army officer who served as the 65th United States Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African-American Secretary of State. No wonder, being a hardcore army-man Powell’s first expectation from the children is about education, justice obeying & career but what he ends the quote is far more important as fairness, care for nature, self-respect, family commitment & civic duty, all these things make character of a person! This is why I chose his words to start my sharing which is about children & nature! Though the Covid threat is not completely gone yet now I can say we are learning to live with the threat as in one month’s time, twice I got the opportunity to address the children (read as students) & trust me if you really want to test your communication skills the try visiting any school or college as a chief guest, may it be any subject! It’s now nearly 40 years I am standing on stage & speaking to the audience yet whenever it's an invite as a guest speaker for students then I do get tense! And when the students are of 10^th Std age group then more goose-bumps & the recent invite from Millennium School, Pune for their 10^th std students, was no exception! First the topic was a bit odd & not just wildlife or environment but mixing it with my profession (read as earning) i.e., construction & then this age bracket students gets bored very fast & you can actually see it during lecture from their reaction but you can’t do anything about it once the train is derailed. The looks they give, the murmur among the audience, the unrest body movements, all these things tell you, “Man, enough, don’t waste your (read as our) time & just pack-up”, trust me that's the worst feeling a speaker can face! And exactly for this, I take such an opportunity to address the students of such age groups as a challenge also for the speaker in me (lol).

I used an audio visual presentation but let me tell you most people just read out the slides of presentation & that’s super boring as audience especially the kids can read faster than you onscreen thing & if you are repeating the same words then also they get bored, instead if you are giving a speech on any subject (other than study) or a presentation then make it like a story telling, this I am sharing from my own experiences as most children like a story (ask Disney & Marvel) & even the elders also but they may not accept it openly. So, build your presentation or speech in such a way that you are telling a story or it's about a story & chances are you don’t have to face the bored faces of the audience! I also built a story around nature & my profession i.e., construction as the school wanted me to speak about careers also in construction. Do mind, these were 10^th std students who have yet to choose a career field for themselves & school is trying to make them exposed to the various avenues of careers & construction is just one of them. As well the school wanted them to have an exposure of the environment conservation, mainly the tigers!

This is why I chose the name, “Nature & Me” as “environment”, indeed an important term but it gives you dry, scientific feel while “nature”, the sound of the word gives a good feeling, making you connect with the term faster, is my own experience. I started with making them explain the term nature i.e., everything around us is or say makes nature right from air we breathe, water we get as rains, the trees, the earth, the sky, the wind all of these what we live in is nature, & unless we go in open & meet this nature, we won’t understand what we want to save just by sitting in classroom! Yet classrooms are important as they make us study & know about nature which later, we can experience when we meet nature in the open. Actually, nature has given us everything in wonderfully beautiful form, right from the grasslands, to snow clad mountains to clear blue sky & ocean, even the deserts are beautiful unless & until the humans touch (read as disturbs) the nature! Here there can be a conflict (children’s minds are full of conflicts) as if humans also have been created by nature just the way forests, ocean, mountains, rivers are created by nature then how can humans only be blamed for damaging nature? This is exactly what we have to understand (or say make the students understand) as then only we can save nature or know our responsibility towards nature. Let’s visit a piece of land where humans have not yet reached (very hard to find such space) or say humans have minimal presence & there are ample such spaces right around us or our city. If you can go some 10-15 km out of the city you can see open lands, hills, get down from your car or bike, park it on road & walk off-road for a few hundred metres in such landscape & what you experience or see or feel? Well, the earth, the trees, the grass, the sky, the stream, the hills everything are in such a harmony that you can’t separate out all these from each other’s & your body becomes part of it, this is what you can say you are creation of nature & its possible only by being one with the nature in your natural form!

And even if you can’t go out of the city, just visit any open piece of land in your nearby vicinity & observe it keenly, here also you will find some grass, insects, lizards, some local birds like sparrows & most importantly, you will find life! Now, imagine a bulldozer digging the earth at this very spot along with cutting the trees, driving aways every other specie living on such piece of the land like birds, ants, lizards, squirrel, all of them & filling the soil with concrete & steel structure & dust & glass & a building build on this very spot where you were standing few moments before as being part of the nature, how will you feel now? Well, this is what makes humans destructors of nature, even after being creatures of nature itself! And this is the major challenge in-front of you all, if you want to make a career in the construction industry i.e., to balance development & nature!

As agreed, we can’t make holes in the earth or build nest on the trees for our homes & we, as humans needs many more things than just a home & food to for our living but that’s why our responsibility to conserve the nature while we make our life comfortable is more as our needs are more than any other specie which nature has created. And all this change is possible by the children & that’s the reason I am here & bothering you on a Saturday morning, is what I told the kids. The best example is of fire crackers in Diwali, it's only because of the schools’ drive & awareness in children of all age groups that the burning of firecrackers has been reduced a lot, helping to restrict air pollution during Diwali all over the country, especially in cities like Pune. I think the construction industry is a great field for career as a home is one of the basic needs of any living species & not just humans & for any business or industry, demand or need of demand is the first criteria to make some money, right? Homes will always be in demand but so will the responsibility of saving the nature while we build homes, is what I want to share you. While you build homes for humans, see that these homes will accommodate other species, flora & fauna too, in those home; actually, this is what will make our homes complete! And for doing nature friendly development you must be well versed with govt norms & polices & ready to raise your voice where you find errors as then only you can consider yourself successful!

Coming to the last part of my story, it won’t be complete without the tigers i.e., forests! After I showed them images of habitats & other animals, I shared few clicks of tigers & could see the aww part on the young faces looking at my clicks on the screen. Why always it’s about Save Tiger, the answer is, because tiger completes the forest & path of saving the tiger goes through saving entire system named forest! And for that one has to understand natures best form which is forest & that is possible only by visiting the forests & for that one has to spare the time, right? And by visiting forests you learn so many things apart from just sighting of a tiger as in the forest nothing happens without purpose & everything is in proportion. This is very important aspect which helps us in every filed we will be choosing as your career & which no book can explain you by sitting in the classroom! Even the parents & the teachers also allow some time to the children to be part of the nature, that’s not time wasted, mind it please!

To conclude, I will share just one thing, education which comes to us via books & the classrooms is certainly important but more important is its application & for that, no better teacher than the nature; all the best, my little friends! Thanks Millennium School team for giving me the opportunity to share my views with the younglings & I am sure, someday they will take this sharing to a better level by applying their own minds to it! 

You can check out the video or presentation at you tube link below...

Nature & Me

https://youtu.be/pHLr4LsYriw

-

 Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about real estate in Pune at You Tube link below..

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4xX7eopH5o&t=5s

 

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

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2021/09/choosing-right-home.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2021/09/blog-post_21.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

Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..

https://secure.mygov.in/

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com /  

https://junglebelles.in/

Dimond Jubilee of Independence Day & Freedom to Own a Home !!

 

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“Freedom doesn’t mean that you are free to do whatever you want, part of it is true yet, freedom is understanding our responsibility towards society as without responsibility no freedom is worth” … Me. (Lol)

Sorry, I am not that great in putting my thoughts in minimum words, yet when it comes to celebrating Dimond Jubilee i.e., 75 years of our country's freedom, I thought of using my own words (can't call it, a quote) to start. First of all, this sharing is not to boost or shame us as a country of as a society neither to congratulate our own selves for this day as indeed we (read as Me) are proud of our country & cherish our freedom & country’s achievements but so does every human being or supposed to of his or her respective country & that’s fine! Issue is not about celebrating freedom, issue is about understanding freedom as well analyzing what we have done with what we have understood, that’s the crux of my sharing! I don’t claim I have understood & I am ideal citizen of this country but I can always try to be one & its only by sharing what I have understood about being ideal citizen I can correct myself for becoming better, right? If you think this dosage of philosophy is too much then I can’t help as when the subject is as complex as freedom & responsibilities then philosophies are bound be bit complex especially for our fellow countrymen whose only way of celebrating (may it be Freedom Day or any Mahapuruh’s Birthday) is to make loudest noise with speaker walls & rallies on Bullet (it's nothing to do with a gun but a two-wheeler with eardrum bursting engine firing)! Rather the louder the noise generated by every possible means the more the love, affection (read as patriotism) for the cause of celebration & I am sure the 15^th Aug 22 won't also be an exception to this!

This is where the concept of understanding freedom comes into the picture but before that lets take a look at the spectrum of what has happened till now in the last 75 years as a country, let’s have a look at it. Well, I am 50 plus by age so I have witnessed 2/3 part of the journey of 75 years of this country & let me tell you, it’s amazing as I remember (those who are 45 plus by age) standing in the queue in front of a ration shop with cloth bags in hand for 1 kg of sugar, 3 kg of wheat & a ration card. I remember wearing a slipper (rubber chappal) all day long i.e., for school & for playing cricket & for attending family functions too, in the same set of chappals. I remember taking my dad’s Luna to fill the petrol in it which was Rs 3 / liter. I remember getting a set of clothes that too stitched from a local tailor only once in a year & on occasion of Diwali. I remember waiting for 3 hours at Karve Road telephone exchange just to convey my BE (i.e. final year engg.) result to my parents by STD from a public booth. I remember adjusting wire-mesh antenna of our Radio to listen Binaca Geet Mala, a program used to air on Ceylon Station once a week & which was only mean to have access to Bollywood trending music & there are such several stories which those who are say 40 plus genre by age can remember or connect with!

And it’s my genre only which today uses an iPhone 13 Pro worth    Rs. 1 lakhs (well, I don’t use an iPhone, just giving an example) & can feed a family for six months with that phone's price! Today you don’t have to wait for 3 hours to convey your result to your parents but in a minute it's open to the entire world. Today I don’t see many people standing in the queue for sugar or wheat but most get it delivered at their home via app or Amazon or Dunzo & why sugar or wheat now you get best of cooked food also delivered at your doorsteps within an hour from you order! Now, no boy has to fidget with the antenna of a radio or TV to listen or watch the latest movie’s songs but on one click you can get songs in the making also to watch & listen!  Neither one has to wait for hours on dirty railway platforms for their train to arrive & air travel is not a privilege of only a few super rich but a middle-class teacher family (just the way mine was) can afford to fly! So many such things which my generation remembers now look like from different life or some other planet, this is what has changed in the last 75 years! And yes, with all the limitations & challenges, our country has survived the worst enemy in the recent history of man-kind i.e., war with Covid Virus, & that itself is the biggest achievement which we must be proud of!

Above all changes in the life style are possible because the country has not only survived but prospered & people like me are not just the witness for the prosperity but are the beneficiaries as well & this indeed is success of each of us that a poor country with no knowledge-base or technology for assistance is today at par with world’s some of the most developed countries on many fronts! Today even after 75 years of freedom, when on many fronts we have done wonderful achievements yet there are few fronts where we have a lot to achieve, as still today millions of people don’t have access to proper basic facilities such as medical, education or quality drinking water & most important, they don’t have a basic good home! I think right to own a basic home should be the main agenda hereafter if we consider this 15^th Aug as Golden Jubilee milestone in the journey of our country & I am not saying this because I am a builder but because by giving a basic good home to every family we can answer to our many unsolved questions related to the society, which are haunting us for decades!

The first challenge in giving a good basic home to everyone is controlling our population because if on one side our 140-crore population is a boon or say the strength of our country then to provide space (read as a home) to all these 140 crores is something even God will find difficult! And when I say a basic good home then it means good water, good power supply, drainage system, proper transportation, school, health facilities along & it’s all these fronts which we are not up to the mark, is a fact. Indeed, for lucky few they have all these factors essential for good life in the form of a home but remaining many doesn’t & that’s the reason of illegal homes (slums) mushrooming all over the country as each of us need a shelter to take rest at the end of the day making a home basic & most important necessity of the life. And then the problem is land is limited or say fixed, we can’t increase land though we can increase land potential but then that also is possible only with the lands which have basic potential of becoming a home in the first place. What this means is even if land is available with whatsoever buildable potential but if that land is in Rajasthan’s desert or in Leah’s mountains, is there any use of such land? Answer is no, because people will need homes where they have jobs, education, means of survival if not prospering & livable environment & such lands are limited making the right of a good home more difficult to execute for the most!

And then the “Mai Baap” govt instead of just announcing “Home for Everyone” type slogans should act in reality for making this happen. But fact is, the govt which makes suitable policies such as making basic infra like land, water, roads, power available to all the industries at free or negligible price, the same govt puts (read as force) conditions on the real estate industry (read as builders) to make available basic things like water, access roads & drainage (& many more) available to the home buyers by the developers on their cost! This is where not just the govt but entire society (media guys are you reading?) must come forward & work on the policies which will ensure removal of every hurdle in making good homes available to everybody as per his or her need! In 75 years, we are able to give an automobile to most of us same is with a cell phone & even food also but not everybody here is free to buy a home of his or her will & that’s why we are not yet free on the most basic aspect of the life i.e., owning a home! Do mind, when I say a good home for the humans then it’s our responsibility only to accommodate nature & all other species from the tiger to a sparrow in that home! And then a good home is what helps best in making good citizens which eventually can change the fate of the country, right? So, while we celebrate this Golden Jubilee year on 15^th Aug 22, let’s take an oath to have a freedom on home owning front for every citizen, as what’s the point in celebrating freedom of a country where most of the citizens has to sleep on the roads or in the illegal homes, worrying for next day which will be 16^th Aug 22, mind it!

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Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about real estate in Pune at You Tube link below..

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4xX7eopH5o&t=5s

 

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

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2021/09/choosing-right-home.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2021/09/blog-post_21.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

Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..

https://secure.mygov.in/

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com