Committee, NOC & Trees!

“When trees are blocking your horizon, build a balcony. The sunset will be breathtaking, but not as literally as the stumps.” …Benson Bruno

Well what this famous writer has understood, we Punkers’ seems to be forgetting as looking at the mess we are having at so called tree committee, it seems nobody cares either for trees or for balconies! Before the news sharks got a fresh feed in form of Loksabha elections, there were few headlines about formation of new tree committee at Pune Municipal Corporation alias PMC. For many of those who don’t know what a tree committee is & what’s its importance in city development, well here is a little background. Few years before when any tree is required to be cut by law there is a mandatory procedure which has to be followed & it consists applying for the same to garden dept of PMC which then put forward the application after initial observations to a committee which includes few elected corporaters, ngo representives & experts in the field of biology as well horticulture. This committee meeting happens once in a month & all these members goes through the proposals of tree cutting & get proper answers to their quarries, whatsoever it may be, they used to clear the proposal. After that the garden department used to give NOC for tree cutting as well its garden departments responsibility to see the terms & conditions under which the noc has been given is being followed.

Such as plantation of new trees in lieu of the cut ones as well if there is replanting or shifting of the trees then to supervise its survival etc. For many years this practice was going on until some Mr. xxxx filed a PIL i.e. public interest litigation against PMC that the process is wrong & no norms are being followed & its leading to lots of illegal as well incorrect tree cutting is on in Pune all over thus reducing tree cover in the city. The applicant showed hundreds of tree cutting evidences to the court as well non fulfillment of the conditions under which tree cutting was allowed. At the same time this committee & garden departments inefficiency to verify the real need of the tree cutting was also petitioners one of the issue. That mean many a time a tree could have been survived by slight change in the planning of project like road or some public structure like water tank for example but it’s not being verified & a good old tree has been sacrificed negligently; is what has been put to the court.

Not hundred percent what has been shown to court was correct & keeping due respect to the court already the PMC as well so called its nexus with contractors & builders wasn’t holding a positive reputation in the eyes of honorable court, so the High Court issues a total ban on any tree cutting in Pune unless tree census of the city has been completed as well ordered PMC to follow proper guide lines for giving permission to tree cutting. Till then ever permission of a single tree cutting even a cutting of a branch also was supposed to send to the bench of Hon High Court. For this again a system has been formulated by the guideline of the high court. By this order the existing tree committee had left with no authority to sanction any tree cutting. And a new committee of experts in the field including just three persons had been appointed as per the directives. Every application filed for tree cutting to the garden department was then scrutinized by this committee & recommended back to the garden dept for further processing. These recommended permissions then were sent to high court via lawyer which then gave the final go for the tree cutting & after receiving ok from bench of the high court, garden department used to give final noc for tree cutting.

Though the process looks a bit tedious it was fast as well effective as there were no wasted interests of anybody & as high court itself is involved everybody was cautious of their verifications. And one may think bit lengthy yet it was much transparent & as the three members committee consists of experts , they were to the point & many trees has been saved from their suggestions. The only hitch was even for a single tree & an individual user also has to follow the high court route for e.g. a bungalow owner who wants to cut an aging tree which is a threat, even he too has to follow all above procedure which was indeed tedious. But then this can’t go all the life long as giving tree cutting noc’s isn’t high courts job & at the same time PMC’s members were anxious to get their authority of permitting tree cutting back, so the fight went on in high court again.

In all this battle one major aspect was tree census in the city which again got delayed from several reasons like not having enough funds (which is a joke) & not getting proper agency. Till today what happened to final outcome of the tree census is a mystery! It’s a shame that with all modern techniques at our assistance still we can’t gather information of every single tree in city & make a record of them as how we are going to protect them without having knowledge of their existence! And then the so called civic body as I mentioned was hell bent to get the noc thing in their hands. So after nearly five year court battle the high court again came down with a order which says to form a new tree committee & then only to give back the authority of tree cutting to PMC level.

Then started a race to get in this new committee, I am not a law expert yet what has been seen or should be common sense is the said tree committee must have experts on it who dealt with the tree issues by academics or field work, only should be part of the committee. And a due consideration should be given to NGOs who work in tree conservation field. A three person committee has been appointed by PMC to call for the interested participants willing to work in the committee & then the shortlisted names has been send to civic body i.e. general body of PMC & from that they have finalized some thirteen names. Its these name which has made headlines , as per many social personalities as well field experts are alleging that except a few, none of them are eligible for the job. And has been sneaked in under some non existing ngo’s names & in reality are political karykartas. Again this whole process now has taken nearly six months & during this again the tree cutting proposals have been pending with PMC, delaying the projects & causing millions of rupees damage.

Fortunately PMC finally is sending again the proposal back to the high court till the new committee comes in existence & starts functioning but the legal battle & tree seems linked for ever as already many individuals & ngo’s are moving to the court against this committee formation process itself! So for time being high court will be busy in job of analyzing the tree cutting permission for our city.

All this makes me to compare the famous hindi fraze “Andher Nagari Chaupat Raja”! In a city of so call Harvard of East, we are unable to decide amongst our self a simple system to cut down the trees is a shame or joke whatever we call it. Many will say don’t allow any tree cutting but then this is also a fascist  stand as being myself a diehard tree lover yet we have to accept that we should balance the development & trees i.e. green cover.

One has to think why the high court came down heavily showing no confidence in the existing system of granting tree cutting permission. Some 23/30 years back all along the roads as well around the bungalows we had large trees of jamun, banyan, mango & many native species, giving shadow as well green cover to the city. Under the name of development we cut most of them is a fact but what about planting new ones & are we not facing the problems caused which has arrived because of our own deeds? Though there are many examples also like on barren stretches of many suburbs due to the  new development only, new plantation also has being done making them a lot greener but that doesn’t justify cutting of old ones & non planting new ones.

No need to make someone tell us about the importance of trees that to large growing, ever green types as that only hope remaining to fight with pollution & ground water conservation. But at the same time not allowing a single tree cutting for the purpose of homes for millions as well infrastructure activities like roads, play grounds, hospitals & many more is also illogical. No development can be called as sustainable which don’t accommodate trees & if we cut one big tree it can’t be replaced by just by planting ten new trees as they will take years to serve us the way a big one was serving us which we have cut down is a fact. So a balance has to be strike & up to possible plant our development around the existing trees as much we can is a first step & for that we need to identify each & every tree. Then make aware all the planers & engineers about this basic concept of planning & then scrutinize the need of cutting the tree via only the experts & most important is make it fast. As the delay will not only increase the money burden but as well it will lead to illegal tree cutting for which we have no infrastructure to prevent. No sane person will say cut a tree unnecessary but then no sane person wont except delay in getting the permission when its essential to cut one as well when he is ready to plant & take care of the new ones.

Another issue is planting the new trees all around the city & within the city as much we can & for that we don’t need any courts permission but the determination for planting & cause behind it. As I have reputedly mentioned all major roads in this city are getting or already have become baron & who has stopped civic body or even the residents to plant new trees along them. The major hurdle is commercial development along these roads & just to encash the commercial potential of so called road view or frontage the occupants don’t allow new trees in front of these buildings. But one look at the major cities in world & you will know, trees don’t obstruct any commercial value of the shop or showrooms’ rather it adds in the same. We have to leave behind myths & learn to live along with trees.

Those who have been lucky as I has been, will remember that in our child hood we have never used to buy local fruits like mangoes, ber, jamun or sitafal as all these were to get abundance from the trees around & the joy of getting all such fruits free was immense. Today with money we may buy the best of the fruits in the world but from where we will get the joy of throwing stones ate the tree which happily used to accept the stones & in lieu of the wounds used to gift us its fruits back? I remember nearly 30 years back when I have came to Pune first time from my home town in Vidharbha, I wrote to my mother that this city don’t have summer! Because then most of the roads in the city were covered with green blanket absorbing all the heat from the sun as well whatever little smoke emitted from the vehicles. But look now what we have turned this city in to? Still this city is better & livable in compare to other cities, not because of just the modern buildings & people in them but the trees here.

It’s not about cutting a tree we should fight but it’s about making one live we should use all our efforts, then no high court will have to intervene for matters like tree cutting noc & for that we only have to decide what we want! Or else one day there will be no tree left for obtaining tree cutting permission & that will be the end of everything!

Sanjay Deshpande

--

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

MSEDCL (Power) Committee, Credai, Pune

Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2013/01/identifying-good-builder.html

Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157627904681345/

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

http://www.punecorporation.org/GRS/Complaint/LaunchComplaintCitizen.aspx

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com

Green Questions & Our Grey Future!

"We are living on this planet as if we had another one to go to…Terri Sweringen

Terri Swearingen is a nurse from the state of Ohio. She was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1997, for organizing the protests against Waste Technologies Industries' toxic waste incinerator in the Appalachian town of East Liverpool, Ohio. No wonder she could narrate the present scene of Environment in so simple words! And it seems our Govt is hell bent to prove her right! Many will wonder for my words that too coming from a builder, which indeed is my profession but what triggered me off is the recent incidence. Our association's media manager sent me three questions to reply, which were asked by a magazine on construction indistry. They were regarding use of Green Materials so as a Chairman of Power-Environment Committee; the mail has been forwarded to me to reply.  When I had a look at the question I realized the depth of the same, as on face they looked very plain & they were plain yet the expand of their would be answers made be dig deep in my mind & in the process I stumbled upon this wonderful quote by Miss Terri!

Being Green is somehow has become a fashion statement in present era & more & more people calling themselves green thinkers, may not be even knowing what it means but it sounds good to be called like that. This is what more alarming as since now it’s more than a decade & yet in our country the Green moment seems to have got stagnant only at awareness level, especially in real estate. There are builders who are trying to build Greener buildings & so are the architects who try to plan the project around the term Green & then we have Govt making norms like obtaining environment Clearance for projects with built up areas more than 2.0 lac sq ft. Also most of the local bodies now ask for various NOC’s such as rain water harvesting, vermicopmosting, garden department for plantation etc, before applying for occupation certificate. Yet some where something is missing seriously as if all are so keen on saving environment then why the effect isn’t being seen? One may say that so much damage has been done in past many years that the effect to wipe out the damage will be slow & that’s why the output of the Green measures isn’t being seen yet! Well, I differ because as except for few sincere efforts what we are doing is just a show of being Green!

The Govt by making compulsion of series of so called environmental noc’s wants to show that how keen it is for protection of Greens & at the same time don’t care to what happens on all these fronts after obtaining all such noc’s.  And on other hand for their own projects such as road widening, drainage line laying etc don’t bother to follow any Green norms, for e.g. those who remembers Pune in early 90’, there were huge banyan trees all along Sinhagad road as well Paud road; during the road widening of these roads all those beautiful big trees were cut down but what about the new plantation & their survival? The result is today these roads have to face immense pollution due to emmition of gasses from millions of vehicles & we can feel the heat as well air pollution all around the day on these roads. Same is the situation on most major roads of the city. At the same time surprisingly all the new development which has come along these roads mostly commercial to encash the frontage of the widened roads, don’t have any plantation of big trees on the road side. Reason is it obstructs commercial value of the shops as well offices in the front side of the building, so the local bodies has also conveniently turned a blind eye & the entire stretch right in the heart of the city along these roads have become concrete jungle & corridors of pollution! And the scene doesn't just stop over here but continues to worsen with poor public transport & not promoting use of non polluting means like cycles!

Same is about issues like rain water harvesting as on one side local bodies like PMC/PCMC are making RWH compulsory but on other side rampant concreting & tarring of the roads is on, leaving no space for water to seep in the ground. At many places even the trees stems which are along the road are totally surrounded by the concerting or hard paving with no exposure of soil to poor tree.

Garbage issue is facing same ignorant treatment, as there is provision of vericomposting NOC for obtaining occupation certificate but no one care for actually confirming how much wet garbage is being treated within the buildings which have given occupation certificate with such noc! And PMC continues to collect wet garbage from these building without bothering that these residents are supposed to treat their wet garbage.

Then the biodiversity in & around the city; we keep on reading the news of most common bird like sparrows getting pushed away from the city & we do nothing. News of dears getting killed by stray dogs from surroundings whatever little forest areas left like NDA hills make headlines & vanish. We have Salim Ali’s named bird park right in the heart of the city which is fast turning up in garbage dump yards & tree cover being lost & no one comes forward to take responsibility of maintaining the same.

And on all this back ground I was supposed to answer the questions about Green things in real estate in the city! Well a job is a job after all s0 to start with first question..

1) Currently, how do you see the demand and market of green products and technologies evolving in India and their availability and cost-competitiveness?

Demand is there & more than that its necessity of the times, right from for the base materials like fly ash bricks to LED lights to solar/wind energy units, green materials are needed. But main thing is pricing, it’s what keeping developer away from such products; as well availability & then the infrastructure for rightly using such materials. For e.g. LED lights, they need a stable electric supply at particular frequency but unfortunately its not being supplied & then it damages these units making the end user pay heavy maintainenece costs. I myself in one of my recent project has tried it & after replacing the LED lights thrice in a year finally switched over to conventional light fittings. Plumbing fittings like controlled flow taps has to be made mandatory as well their availability in the market should be assured which isn’t presently.

2) What has been the role of government in shaping green building environment?

Govt is doing zero on this front. Just giving advertise in news papers on public money or making some NOS’s compulsory isn’t going to solve the problem. Not talking to actual field workers, neither promoting these products properly, no subsidies’ or any such policies are being adopted to make more & more people use it. Also they should be coming without any tax like VAT or LBT making them available at cheapest as well in bulk in open market. But even things like solar panels also have not been subsidized properly; first you have to spent then ask for the money to be refunded. And we all know what it takes to get any kind of refund from the Govt!

3) What are the future plans for Greening Indian Industry?

Future of Green Indian Industry has to be bright or else our entire future will be in dark! More & more people should demand green products in as many ways we can make. And for the R & D is very much imp so we can understand actually need as well hurdles in finding out the needs of the real estate industry on this front! Unfortunately there seem no concrete future plans for Greening Indian Industry as it’s not clear that whose job it is to make such plan? Lots of bosses can only mess up the system & that’s what is happening with Greening. We should have one single department which will be at apex & this department should govern all policies related to Greens. Right now there is Environment Ministry at center & at State & then we have pollution control boards & then all the laws related to housing are being made my Urban Development or Housing department. We have MSEDCL as our power provider agency & we have a Power Ministry  at the same time we have Ministry of Unconventional Sources of energy as well agencies like MEDA i.e. Maharashtra Energy Development Authority, which is supposed to promote energy saving products i.e. Green Products. And there no co-ordination between any of these departments of ministries is a fact. And on top of it none of these officials ever talk to the ground workers in the field & take their suggestions in consideration while making any Green policy & result is every such policy has been failed or else we would not have been asking these questions!

On the Industrial front also the associations of real estate developers as well production industries should come forward join hands & put pressure on Govt for coming up with a future plan for the Greening. Role of the end user is equally important as they should also demand more use of Green products instead going for just costly & fancy amenities/ specifications. As just crying that no one cares is not going to solve the problem & it’s to be done real fast or else there will be left nothing to care for!

--

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

MSEDCL (Power) Committee, Credai, Pune

Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2013/01/identifying-good-builder.html


Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157627904681345/

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

http://www.punecorporation.org/GRS/Complaint/LaunchComplaintCitizen.aspx

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com

Words of a Writer!

Our fate lives within us. One has to brave enough to identify it… From the Disney movie “Brave”.

While preparing for my speech on 10th March evening i.e. the occasion of my first book "Shades of Grey & Green" launch by Bhanubai Nanwati College of Architecture i.e. BNCA, this sentence from the movie Brave, I was reminding to myself. As over the years I am quite used to audience & addressing to the same but launch of my first book  is something making the butterflies in my stomach go flying! I was wondering at this feel as what’s big deal, it’s just a book launch & one more speech, that’s it. But what happens usually when you speak on a particular subject you have a frame & that makes things much easier. Here I didn’t know what I am supposed to speak. At such times what you have watched in the forms of movies especially the cartoon movies which carry great messages comes to your rescue & so was the Brave, which I watched on TV just a night earlier before the book launch.

Most of the people write down their speeches & then speak on those lines, I haven’t done that ever! Long back in school days I have wrote down my speech, it was about Mahatma Gandhi & in mid way I forgot what I wrote down & was blank; so winded up the speech saying “Gandhiji mahan purush hote, Jay Hind” & ran away from the stage. From that day I never written down any of my speeches, not that I am great speaker or anything like that but whatever little I have spoke from the dais, it’s always instinct. 

Vadana Chavan madam spoke about the book & it was real challenge to speak after an eminent speaker like her. Today after launch of the book I thought of sharing my feelings which I have spoken on the occasion. It’s just a personal gratitude I felt like expressing as no success is individual’s though the fruit may be enjoyed by an individual but the real creditors are hidden in background & so are they  in my case too in the form of all my friends, cousins, well wishers, my colleagues as well elders in family & my teachers at various stages in life. And what better way than to share your feelings with them via these writings!

Sharing my words which I spoke & some which were unspoken yet wanted to spoke…

To all dignitaries on the dais & my friends, at such times I realize that how easier writing is than delivering a speech as in writing you always have an option of review & editing the words you have thought. You can rearrange them at your will but while speaking once it’s gone its gone! Till I came here & stood in-front of you I wasn’t knowing what I am going to speak as this is a total new experience for me. Now I know how my flat holders must be feeling when they must have been taking possession of their first home on stage, its much similar emotion for me. As Vandana didi has already spoke about the contents of the book I will share why I wrote & how the things come on paper. It started long back nearly ten years when I have been called in a seminar on Environment at Delhi by TERI i.e. The Energy Research Institute. When I went at registration counter the lady there asked me “You are a builder?” I replied “yes.” She again asked, “And you have come to speak on environment?” I replied again “yes madam”. On that she made a face like seeing Mr. Vijay Mallya in a Darubandi Andolan! The face was clearly surprised saying what a builder is doing in environment seminar, when they are the cause of the destruction. Well ten years down the line still scene isn’t changed much as when people started to receive the invites from our side as well BNCA College about the book launch, there were calls like you have written a book, wow! What’s it about< is it about real estate? Well I said yes & no! As it’s not “How to become a builder”, as one don’t need any such book for becoming a builder, here in our country there no any criteria required for being one. All one is needed is some money & understand the system, rest is taken care by the demand for homes by millions of Indians whose first dream is owning a home.

Well joke apart in my journey of nearly 24 years in real estate I came across many things which we all see around in our daily city life. And mostly problems & promises made to us about solving them. May it be traffic issue or water or public health or garbage or reducing greenery around; & none of these promises gets fulfilled. At some stage we feel like cheated & we come to a stage of frustration about all the system yet deep within the hope never dies. And it’s this hope which enable us fight with all odds & try to make this world a better place but what we do? Most of us try to find out a name whom we can blame for the situation around. We have been shown dreams of making our cities like Shanghai or Singapore & there are so many big names in architecture or urban planning present here, but what I feel is making of IT parks or Metros or Flyovers don’t make any city Singapore which is considered as an ideal city; it’s the attitude of every citizen towards the city decides the fate of the city whether it will end up as a good city or a bad city!

It’s this though which made me to think that what as an individual I can do, should do & I penned down my feelings. Today why we all are here is outcome of that penning down. An architectural college run by educational institute like Maharshi Karve Stree Shikshan Sanstha is publishing the book, a politician lady who is MP of Pune is reading out the content of the book & which has been written by a writer who is a builder & in presence of so many learned faces here & eminent personalities from the social life of the city! What better start it can be towards becoming a good city! As it’s the knowledge as well environment only which can get all the segments of the society on one platform & unless that happens we can’t become the ideal society or city is a fact. This is what made me to write down what I have written.

Few years back I have got opportunity to listen speech by or Ex President Dr APJ Kalam at college of engineering & he has asked the engg students that this degree will give you a decent job, wealth recognition, honor & many things but what you will be giving back to the engineering? On same lines this city has given me recognition, the real estate has given me money as I do acknowledge that I haven’t been in the business for charity, the environment has given me chance to lecture the lecturers today, a boy who finished his college life from the back bench has been made to sit in front row with so authorities, I got all this because of profession & the city, so this book I take it as my little giving back to the both. As today real estate is looked down by most of the society as a grey shade business but like Vandana didi said there are few good politicians, there are many good builders also who does a far better job than what I do. This book I take as a tribute to my entire fellow collogues who try to give a better face to real estate industry by their work.

Lastly I thanks to the entire team BNCA especially the most happening principal as I call him Anurag kashyap sir, ritu madam, chakradeo who gave face to my words with so many illustration, my friends Nitin,Punam & Vijay & my badminton group, morning stars which is present here also to cheer me, most importantly CREDAI i.e. our association because of which I could get vast exposure to various issues of this industries, Sakal & Loksatta teams who gave me courage to write more as had they not published my write-ups I would have never been known my own capacities. My parents, who will be more proud today as they too are reaches by profession & I am sure they would feel more happy as how many buildings I built or how many cars I own isn’t important for them but their son has wrote a book which will be referred by students is more valuable for them, my sister as well cousins for keeping my spirits high all the time,  entire team at Sanjeevani who kept their boss free so he can use that time to think & write & many more are the real writers of this book. Lastly my wife as no married man should forget his better half, as when I was taking care of this front the family front was being handled by her & she equally is creditor of this book.

Before ending what I will say to BNCA students is keep reading & keep writing as some day you will also standing here at the dais & making proud not only to your loved ones but your own self too!

Thanks a lot….

--

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

MSEDCL (Power) Committee, Credai, Pune

Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2013/01/identifying-good-builder.html


Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157627904681345/

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

http://www.punecorporation.org/GRS/Complaint/LaunchComplaintCitizen.aspx

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com

"Shades of Grey & Green" , a Book by Me!

Can’t wait for 10^th march 14, the date of publication of my first book

“Shades of Grey & Green’. My first book, the words sounds like coming from some distant planet!  There are few things which I can boast of & one of them is a I am a good reader, I read a lot & it’s since my childhood! It has helped me a lot to become what I am today & I read right from philosophy of Ian Rand to comics like Twinkle, as subject is no bar for me when it’s reading. It’s just like visiting forests, no matter which one it is until I am lost in some wilderness! Reading has given me immense pleasure & some good friends too. But having a book of my own is something very very special & it’s like giving back something to my hobby of reading from my side! On this blog I have shared many topics & many of the write-ups only have made the book yet today what I will be sharing is what I felt for the book. Its reader of this blog as well friends only who has made me give courage to keep writing &finally made it to book, so what better than to post it here first as from here the journey has been started! It’s not important how popular the book become or how many buy it; for me it’s come in existence is enough! Here are my words for my book.....

 Why do writers write? Because it isn't there...Thomas Berger.

Frankly when its actual time to get my own book published then the words seems to left me but this quote by the witty American novelist were like gathering them again for me. Well though I don’t claim that whatever I have written & being published hasn’t been there, just like what we studied in science that there is a difference between finding something & creating something! Like Columbus found America, it was already there he just guided more people or outer world to that land. Whereas James Watt invented or created a steam engine which wasn’t there at all & so did many other scientists with their inventions! Then what’s difference between a writer & others? By me they give words to the feelings or emotions or thoughts in our minds which are there but not in any fixed form so we can’t express them the way a writer does. For me writing comes as a painting where my words are colors & the topic is the object & what better than canvas of a book to complete the painting!

I still can't believe that a book of my own write-ups is actually in making & getting published as I never wrote with aim of becoming a writer. The journey started some ten years back when I was working with DSK group & looking after engineering as well part marketing. There was supposed to be image building advertise campaign in Femina where we were to advertise one of our projects & in leave of that we have got a page space where we could write about our company or the project, whatever we wanted to write. As usual the matter i.e. write-up was to be wrote by copy writer of advertising agency & I was supposed to brief them about the project which I did. When I saw the proof , I gave corrections in my own words seeing which the media person suggested as I was handling the project I could be the best person to write about it, again which I accepted & wrote down whatever I felt about the project. Only thing I did was not just to write about the project which was a township, first of its kind then but I wrote about its social impact or angle. It clicked & then I kept on writing that column even after the advertise campaign ended.

That was the start & later with friend circle from various news papers especially Lokastta & Sakal, got lucky enough to be able to get published whatever I was writing on the various fronts of real estate industry as well environment, as the two things goes hand in hand. Later on topics like my wild life conservation trips & covering what’s happening with other cities also get added up & then it become addiction to write anything which I get exposed too. Though the focus remained on correlating whatever I see to the life around!

Eventually some good tech savvy friend suggested I should start a blog of my own articles & that front also come in existence in 2009 & any topic wasn’t a bar as blog was reflection of my own thought process. Now the topics which I couldn’t share with media also I could write here & so the thing went on. In the process I realized I am not a writer by my own thoughts, I was rather I am reactive not proactive. Whatever I am writing is a reflection of what’s happening around me & I tried to paint it in my words for my own self, which eventually seems to be liked by the people with whom I kept on sharing the same. Many such readers were suggesting that I should comply a book of these write-up, many of which were been published in news papers but each thing has its own timing. So the book’s time came when BNCA Principal

Mr. Anurag Kashyap not only just suggested that I should make a book but took lead with his team & offered to publish one such by his institute & actually set his team under Ritu Sharma madma, for the same! Well this is the story behind the book. Though there have been many actual supporters as well friends, right from Narendra Joshi, Dhruva Kulkarni, Shumita Mahajan especially entire Sakal team, who not only appreciated the write-ups but published them & gave me confidence that what I write is readable & people liked it. As I keep on receiving comments, reaction from even unknown readers about the write-ups & the way I wrote them. It was very touchy or I don’t have word to express the emotion when you get to hear "Oh you are that Sanjay Deshpande, the writer, we read your write up in news paper & liked it" type reactions! And then there are people like Mukund Sangoram whose own writing has been inspired me a lot to make my thought process flow freely & to reach out to the people through the same.

An important thing I realized about writing in the entire process is its very good stress buster & I feel relieved when I complete write-up on any topic which is in my mind. Many of us might have been experience like you hear a song on radio & try to remember the name of movie & till you don’t remember it you become restless, it’s that kind type feeling. One more thing about writing is it gave me immense confidence about my own self; as a boy coming from a small town of Vidarbha & with Marathi medium, to gather the thought process & to express the same in English is a very big thing for my own self. As my voacabillery was limited, though I am a good reader by myself, yet to read others words & to compile them for your own thoughts are two separate things & I could do that was something real morale booster for me. It does got reflected on my other activities also including dealing with people around. I become clearer, more transparent in communication & what better effect as a businessman while running my own company under the name "Sanjeevani" or even as a father, as a husband & as a friend, I could have asked for! And then I am really thankful of all these as it’s my family & friends whose cheering made me to become a good observer & helped in writing it down. I am mainly happy for my parents who are teacher by profession & what better pride I could have given them than writing a book which in some way will be helpful for the students of not only architecture but of many branches as these are the observations about making our surrounding a bit better. And I will be most happy if even one student reads this & thinks over the contents! Similarly my both sons who themselves one day will realize why their father kept them bothering with lengthy articles mailed especially at late night as that’s was the time when I wrote most of the articles. My wife Ashwini too has an important role of being with me all the time which matters most as it it kept me relieved from home front issues. Few names if I don’t mention then it will be injustice to their support in my entire journey from a bachelor vagabond engineer to somewhat mature person who can see life more clearly & its Nitten & Punam Mahajan & Vijay Bondale; as any man is zero without a real good friend & its these names who saved me from being a zero. Most important is my entire team at Sanjeevani who allowed their boss free time by virtue of which I can not only move around but was able to focus & absorb whatever has been written in here! My parents will be most happy as being teacher by themselves, their son writing a book which will be referred by students is the best tribute I can pay to them for making me what I am today!

Lastly about the contents of the book, well it’s nothing special as most of the things are happening around & we all have our own opinions about them. Also it’s not been aimed for some particular class or age group as its everybody’s book. What I have tried is to make the reader reactive like I have become after getting exposed to the issues in the write-ups. You will notice that each of the write-up starts with a quote, some by the authority in the field of philosophy & art! I am fascinated by the word power of these great people which quotes I come across in my reading & keep collecting the same. Out of that stock I used the quotes as a theme of that particular topic as what I have to say in so many words, these people have covered in one sentence! Friends, so many things happen around us & we just let them go as if we have become reactive to the things only close to our day to day routine & it’s this limited re activeness of each of us has landed the entire society in sorry state is what I feel. I am not a philanthropist or protagonist to make people ready for change or revolution as that’s too big a thing. But all I can appeal is make out some time for picking out smallest of the things around while you go through your daily ritual like a small poor boy walking barefoot in front of you on footpath or a garbage bean overflowing alongside the road or a unknown person greeting you with smile in the lift & you can be a cause to change, however small it may be. And its small change by each of us can be a chain reaction for something real good for all the society.

So go ahead & find your own-self through my words is what I wish for the readers....


--

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

MSEDCL (Power) Committee, Credai, Pune

Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2013/01/identifying-good-builder.html


Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157628805700569/

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

http://www.punecorporation.org/GRS/Complaint/LaunchComplaintCitizen.aspx

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