"Warrior of Hope", Letter To Mr Narendra Modi!!

 “It is better to lead from behind & put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory. You take the front line when there is danger. That’s the way people will appreciate you as a good leader… Nelson Mandela.”

To Hon Modi Sir,

Rather I was confused what term I should use to write you, & better shall call you as Narendrada as that gives more comfort & familiar feel. I am Sanjay Deshpande, a civil engineer/builder from Pune, Maharashtra; I don’t know whether my words through this letter will be ever reach to you or not, as never in my life I have tried to write to even a elected member of my town, leave apart Prime Minister of India! But then when you feel to write someone it’s not mere words but the feelings you are expressing. Not that I haven’t come across good leaders/politicians in the society but never felt like writing to them is a fact. As the great leader has said in the above quote, I think you have lived the later part i.e. putting yourself at front when the danger was there & showed how a leader should take on the danger! The earlier part of the quote is yet to become true as I am sure you also know the real danger (this may be wrong word) yet it’s in form of the delivering lies ahead so you need to be in front for a while.

Narendrada I wonder from your way of approaching masses that is it mere coincidence that a person with same name has long back won the masses of even western world with just one sentence “My brothers & sisters” & kept on teaching this country to know its own strength! I am referring to none other than Swami Vivekananda, who lived a short life but a life worth following! He also tried to make common man understand value of his life & utilize it for a cause & what you were telling to us through your campaign wasn’t any different is what I feel. If at all difference was then you were asking us to do via channel of democracy but in actual it’s for us only. To me we as a democracy were very immature till you came along & appealed us to wake up or grow up is the proper word. As when most of the time every educated & later even non educated man was thinking, “kya farak padata hai yar apne ek votese”, about the elections; as the way it’s being fought & won.  It’s you who made us to understand our power. I am voting since last twenty years now & for the first time in my life I saw queue of people in one of the best locality in Pune where I reside, when the usual scene was supposed to be a holiday type mahowl on the D day! That day & that time I started respecting you more as this wasn’t a one day effect or chamatakar, but this was outcome of a man who not single handed but by using thousand hands have made this happen. And it has been replicated in every town & city of this so called secular country which in actual lives non secularism at every level of society, may it be election or service or even a thing as personal as marriage.

We are secular conveniently till now, using our caste or religion only for our benefit but it’s this time we voted going beyond that & realizing the real caste or religion is development of the entire nation & society. Narendrada, do you realize what you have ignited by your campaign? It’s not voters’ confidence or just faith in what you say, it’s the hope you ignited which was on the verge of dying in every common man’s mind of this country. And when I say common here it includes a billionaire business man living in his empire as well a rikshawala on street! As the country which used to live on hope since our ancient times & believed in thirty three crore Gods or Allah or Jesus & think that their god can take them out from any bad situation, has lost their hopes about the state of their country! “Is deshka kuch nahi ho sakata ab” was the general feel & I myself too wasn’t exception. 

You must have come across a novel by Ian Rand,“Atlas Shrugged’ & in that novel same situation has been shown what we feel every day. There a question is asked by everyone to everyone “Who is Joan Galt?” means God knows, to describe the frustration & helplessness about the situation around. The scene was those who are working hard & really want to do something good for the society by their work are being sucked by those who are just idealistic & in hand with rulers without any policy.

What you did was something my generation has forgotten to believe & that is why we have stopped hoping for miracle. And we forget that miracle is within us & we can make things happen. Though there wasn’t any common pool or communication group to bring along the change which each of us wanted & you without even knowing to yourself has become that group like on whats-ap or fb & people shared the change through you! When Internet was in making no one knew what it will change in the society, well it just didn’t changed society but it changed the concepts of communication & what is a society without communication? Your campaign also was worth studying for any management school & sure it will be part of many B Schools syllabus hereafter & even of war colleges also. As by me it indeed was a war, where you were to fight seen as well unseen enemies. It said in politics there are no permanent enemies; well then the coin has other side too. Means you don’t have any permanent friend also in the politics. 

I am fan of good movies & good book, in famous Harry Potter series, the Hogwarts School’s principal Dumbledore once says, “It requires courage to stand up against the enemies but it require far more than just courage to stand up against your friends” & I think who better than you could describe this dialogue!

Why I said your war story because it’s like fighting everybody at same time on different fronts, first with opposition parties then with the so called friends within the parties & lastly fight with the dead hopes of entire nation’s common man! And that too in time span of less than eight months with only asset of being a successful Chief Minister of a state out of thirty two states of this country! Agreed you are the only Chief Minister (to my knowledge) who eventually has become the Prime Minister of the country but then there were other successful Chief Ministers too in this country. So its definitely is your credit as well subject of study how you could achieve which no one could even dream! At the same time this absolute win is a big responsibility to treat you opponents with dignity too; as we have witnessed the history, how even a defeated King Puru has been treated by anonther king i.e. Sikandar like a king only.

Unfortunately in our country we are specialized in analyzing failures but rarely study success as we are too ignorant about it or emotional fool is proper word. But I am sure when you said you will show your report card in 2019, then you mean what you said & for that success analysis is a must.

Now as first part of the war has been won, the more difficult part starts as once the hopes of a nation are relived, it’s like awakening a sleeping giant as it will start demanding & a country with hundreds of languages, cultures , castes, religions its mammoth job. Yet what I feel is when it comes to expectation from life the 120 crore population country has same definition about good life. That way we the Indians have been successful in western countries only because of our fewer expectations about life. “Do wakt ki roti, soneke liye sarpe khudka chhappar aur ho sake to ekhad gaddi“ i.e. an assured meal, own home & a car is like bonus; bass, that’s our very basic definition of good life & we are ready to slog for it; and the best part is no one wants these basic need free! Whatever threat people may show about riots & communal, all these have been emerged from the frustrations of this very basic need hasn’t been fulfilled & then we have leaders who are expert in keeping us fighting for the reasons which are no way related to the cause but mainly to distract people from their failure of not doing the duty. The common man in this country hasn’t yet forgotten the humanity as its still here in this country a glass of water is asked to any visitor without knowing his origin, such is our gesture. So when you appealed for development, it’s this common man who understood the difference & importance of your campaign & what a way he has responded!! In a way it’s a sign of maturity of the democratic India also.

Development of a City or a Country isn’t just high GDP or Airports or IT Parks or Big Malls, but it’s the comfort level in the mindset of common man for his every day survival. We do need education, good health facilities & we are ready to pay for all the services. Challenge is to make it available at affordable cost & in reality. Years after years we have been shown rosy picture of a “Sujalam Sufalam Bharat” & everyone was watching who is in actual getting “Sujalam Sufalam!”. I am sure you know or have understood all this, just wanted to confirm as feedback from a commoner’s eye. Please do try to share this view & understanding of yours to every karyakarta; senior or junior as hereafter you will need it. As when every individual soldier of a kingdom speaks same words & has same morals that of the King, only those Kings have succeeded is the lesson from history!

Lastly now with the position you are in, there will be thousands who will be expecting something from you but I will wish that you ask me what I can give you in your mission of achieving “Achhe Din”, as that’s the best way I can pay my tribute to the “Warrior of Hope” for this country!!

Jay Hind!!

--

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/

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Every Forest has it's own Story!!

When I look in to the eyes of an animal I do not see the animal. I see a living being, I see a friend, I feel a soul...A.D Williams.

Well, no wild life lover will argue with the words of the great author! Each time there may be the same jungle but a different story to tell, such is the power of wilds! And it’s these stories which make my feet get pulled towards the jungle whenever I get a chance to do so. And opportunities always come without announcing in our life, all one has to be ready to act up on when one such comes our way! One such trip in Pench & then Tadoba, accompanied by Mr. Atul Kirloskar, boss of a giant corporate & with wild life specialists like Kiran purandare, anuj khare, rajendra kadam, who himself is a forest officer & vikram podar, one of the best wild life photographer of the country! Kirloskar group is well known for its sensitiveness towards environment & Pench forest & anuj who runs nature walk has arranged their MD's visit at pench mp, for any assistance to the forest dept. To manage any tiger project is a huge task as many a thinks it’s like a zoo, which isn’t true at all.  A tiger project is protected forest but the protection is without any physical boundaries which are on paper in the form of maps. The animals don’t know any such boundaries & man animal conflicts are the biggest threat for the park. We have been sort of guests of pench national park & were staying right inside the park in forest department rest houses, all cut from the mobile network or news paper or TV channels, a real jungle exposure! Mr. Alok Kumar, the field Director of the park himself took great interest in making us see the administrative side of park management. There was very good interaction with forest team including Mr. Joshi, Park Sp , Mr.Taiwade, game ranger &   Mr. Tiwari dy ranger which were there at  MP Pench. They gave us a detailed presentation about the expand of the park, park’s flora & fauna in & around, the problems & their efforts to tackle the same! Major issue is over 50,000 numbers of dears which is one of the best prey bases for animal like tiger but at the same time you need lots of grass to feed them. And to create the grass land is a huge task.

An interesting story we come to know about shifting of a tigress from pench to panna national park. The villagers around were so used to the tigress & she was like a lucky charm to vilage karmazirir , attracting many tourists, that there was huge resistance to shift her from the pench. The the director Mr. Alok Kumar took villagers in confidence & told them that " Ye to aapki beti hai aur betiko to ek din ghar chodke janahi hai, to aap pyarse use bida kijiye" means tigress is your daughter & one day the daughter has to go to her husbands home, so please send her with smile! And the logic worked! Such stories can happen only in forests!

Another major concern is the ever existing danger of illegal fishing in the pench river, which divides the park in MP & Maharashtra. The economics is astonishing as first we laughed as how illegal fishing can be a problem for such a big forest! When Mr. Joshi explained, we went numb; he explained there are nearly 200 illegal vessels involved in illegal fishing & average one boat catches 1000kg fish in a day. The fish catch includes rohu, katla, etc. This is being sold in local market at Rs40-5-/kg & then by numbers of dispatchers this catch is transported out of the forest to nearby villages & from there to cities like Jabalpur, Seoni & Nagpur. Here it’s being sold at Rs 150-200/kg , so the even if we consider net profit per day per kg as Rs 100, then with 200 boats catching 1000kg per day each, the entire turnover goes to over Rs 2 crore per day & that makes nearly Rs 700 crore per year! Now you can imagine why it’s been a big game! Thousands of people living around the park & many politicians as well govt officials are involved in the racket or else it’s impossible. Forest dept has a mammoth task to fight these people as they have their own informants which spread the news of raid in advance & then the fisherman sank their boat & ran away. Next day they know exactly where they have sunk the boats, they come back & retrieve them & again the fishing starts. The fishing disturbs balance of biodiversity in the water body as its prey for thousands of birds visiting the park & entire life cycle gets disturbed. Also the moment on ground for carrying the kill out of forest disturbs the entire wild life. We came up with the idea of making the forest guard trained in scuba diving & think on arranging scuba divers suit for the forest team, so they can locate the sunken boats by the fisherman & destroy the same. As destroying a boat will really damage the entire illegal fishing operation. & so many things to do along with great time in jungle!!

We visited villages around & saw the care taken by the forest department to minimize the conflicts between man & animal as visiting the forest for fun & sight a tiger is one thing & day & night to live in surrounding where tiger roams freely is another thing. Imagine how many of us can really do that even for a day & here we are talking about people who has to spend their entire life like that! Park staff has a huge task at their hands for making people living on the fringes of the park to be friend & not enemy with the animals. Things like building a bund wall which will avoid dears & wild boars to enter in to the fields & damage the crops are being done.

We tried to get as much exposure we can even visiting chowkis i.e. where the forest guards reside in deep jungle & se their life style. So we can work out in what best way we can try to take some load of the fight which park team is fighting to make the jungle a better place for the animals as well their team!

During entire duration whenever there was spare time we were moving through the forests & I was trying to see the things which we usually miss in the safari as we were having good time at hand & it was not usual tiger chasing safaris! Here are some moments...

Learning a lesson!

At pench mp in a hot may summer we saw a jackal killing a red jungle fowl, with the efforts in chase & kill the jackal opted to rest near a pond & to save from crows pondering over his head he placed the kill in the pond water. To his surprise the water currents took the kill in middle of the pond & then poor jackal was in trouble as the pond was deep & muddy. In a zest to retrieve the kill the jackal circled all around the pond & finally decided to risk the life for the kill & entered in the water & in marathon efforts again got hold of the kill & ran away from the pond swearing never to do such foolishness! Sure he has learned his lesson is never to part away a kill which you have got with so much of efforts! We captured the entire scene which was on for nearly half hour. It’s things like this which makes the jungle very much alive & makes us leave with a promise to come back again!

Flying Wild!!
Wild dogs are mysterious specie as not much study or documentation on them yet has been done! Yet the most feared pack they are in forest, even tiger keeps distance from them! Sometimes you see them all day long lazying, playing at a water hole & next day they are gone & you can’t see even their glimpse for days! We got lucky with the pack of nearly 30 wild dogs feeding over the kill of chital. It’s amazing to see when they are in such a big pack, everyone was eager to have his bite yet we could identify the respect for the senior members to have their honor of first bites! So much to learn from them by us, the so called humans!

Catch me head on!
Any wild life lover’s dream is getting head on with a tiger/tigress! At tadoba which I visited after pench, the famous four telia cubs; are no more cubs now but has turn in to like four princess of the area. The great fun in tiger sighting is in seeing the pug marks, with no alarm call guess the moment, go ahead of the queen & get her head on! Wow, joy is in looking the sheer grace with which she walks but more joy is for you guessed her moment correctly by using your experience in the wilds!

Who says birds are dumb!!

When waiting at junawani water hole, it’s a small earthen dam surrounded by hills from all side & a sure tiger sighting place in pench mp, I saw a pond heron picking up a frog; it was a normal thing but what happened next was something very interesting! The heron took the kill which was alive, to the edge of water & deepen its hind leg in water & again lifted his neck upwards, this continued for at-least 5/6 times! Then I realized the frog was too big for the heron to swallow & had he opened his beak to swallow the frog would have slipped, so he was making the hind legs of frog to touch the water & let it think it’s free, so the frog pushed himself up which was in actually in the mouth of the heron!!! Now who will say brains of birds isn’t much developed!!! This is what makes every moment in forest making us to come back again!!

Box of Surprises is the Forest!

The afternoon ride was pretty dull & hot & however you are down by mood as the jungle was silent with most of the time sun behind the cloud at tadoba, yet over the years I knew the jungle never keep you depressed for much time! And so was it, my gipsy was crossing fire line & a black mass was slowly moving towards us, a huge sloth bear female!! Just to capture the moment the sun came out of light & could get one long shot & one very close one, the closest I ever had of the specie, as with that black fur it’s very difficult to focus the camera for details with this one! Once again the jungle has stood to its box of surprises! What was saddening is the way people behave at such times, fire lines are the best paths animals use to cross the roads & here most of the gipsy drivers exactly stop their vehicles bang on the fire line making the animal get disturbed & change its course. What forest dept should do is mark of No Stopping at such crossings making animals to cross the road freely!

Forest is ever giving!

They say forest never leaves you unhappy! Was searching for a good image of pied Malabar horn bill, a big yet beautiful bird & in a full ride pench mp, I came across it many times but couldn’t get a good shot of the bird & when I came back to forest rest house at karamziri, was chatting with the guard & he said " sahab yaha zaranke bajume jo bargadka ped hai waha aake baithata hai dopaharko" means sir the bird you are mentioning comes & sit on a baniyan tree every noon! Huriedly I finished my lunch & set for the banyan tree &  so there it was!! Sitting like giving me pose & saying take as much snaps you want :)
Once again my trust in forest proved right that it’s the best place to find joy!!

In jungle the beauty is there are no retakes, you only get to see the actions just once & if you lose that moment then it’s gone! So one has to be very alert provided if one has interest! And this is what we should learn from forest trip as it teaches us to look in to smallest of the things happening around. In forest there are many things which only an individual can experience & getting an opportunity to click something which happens just once is one such! This can’t be put in words; it can be only shared with the person who has experienced it by himself.

Finally few words to share about Mr. Atul Kirloskar which I eventually end up calling Atulda, I know he won’t be liking this part of the write-up but every forest trip has taught me something & it’s like bonus to be with a person who is boss of a business empire. In entire trip he never showed any sign of his wealth or position may it be sipping a cup of tea from a dirty glass at a dhaba or walking along on a forest trail in scorching hot sun. Ever curious about the smallest of the things & most controlled reaction about any topic! I am sure if more & more people like Atulda’s stature visits forest & try to understand the problems over there & offer support, then it will be the best thing that will happen to not only the forests but all wild life lovers!

With this I departed from the Pench Mp with a promise of coming back as soon as I can!!

--

--

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

A tribute to the Structural Legend named Sane Sir!

My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions….Peter Drucker

Well no need for introduction for this name as a consultant, what we will be talking about is a consultant only but a structural consultant. Recently small news in the news papers of one Mr Y S Sane passed out might have been neglected by many common citizens of the city! Well, Yashvant Shankar Sane, popularly known as Y S Sane & for many engineers of my age, just as Sane sir! In 70’s when real estate is like a toddler in the city this man was religiously teaching structures at COEP & then like a visionary he started structural consultancy for the builders in the city who were yet not exposed to technical side of the industry. And then it was never looking back for y s sane & asso , nearly 90% of the projects in 80’s were under the structural supervision of sir, such was his might.

Till then every passing out student from civil engineering used to dream about going to middle east for the job or join Govt service but come y s sane & asso & structural engg saw a huge demand for post graduation as joining y s sane was a glamorous thing for any pass out civil engg graduate, such was the aura sir has created. It’s very important aspect of sir’s achievement, keeping in mind the situation of real estate in those times. Usually it’s considered as a good academician rarely gets success as a good professional person or a consultant; because it’s been seen that too much of theory spoils your vision as a consultant which is a profession also! But sir used his mastery in academics perfectly to establish himself as a consultant who not only knows just the theory well but knows how to use it for making a good building too.

As the great Drucker says success of consultants depends on how he makes his employer happy & at peace, both money wise as well quality wise! Sane sir seems to get Ducker’s logic in his blood as then the raw real estate industry; first major task was to make the builders realize importance of a structural consultant. It wasn’t at all easy job as by no way real estate men were ever supposed to be giving respect to knowledge or men with knowledge. Even a basic consultant/professional like architect wasn’t being respected, in such times to make them realize importance of something like structures was a huge task! Sane sir not only become a structural consultant but he become like a family consultant for many real estate houses & it continued for second generations, like a family consultant. And he was very particular of having personal attention on each & every work as I myself remembers, he visiting the site for slab checking & climbing to lift room top slabs which are the highest point in the building!

Another important aspect of Snae sir was he never used to say no for any of the demand even the weirdest one from his clients. And it’s not just to please the client but he used to take those demands as a structural challenge & without touching safety aspect of the design. I have been part of many discussion on planning with architects, where we used to conclude the how to make it happen structurally  “Sir baghun ghetil” i.e. sane sir will take care of design part, lets draw it as per requirement! Jokes apart but in recent time I have come across advertize of a cement company where people have shown sleeping at peace in tall buildings & the background sound says “Lakho loag chain ki nind lete hai humari suraksha kawachme” & the name of cement flashes on screen! It means so many people can afford to sleep at peace in so many buildings because of the cement which has been used in making those building! So effective, same way I have seen builders feeling when they hand over the structural designing of a building in sane sir's hands!  And same is equally true for millions of the people residing in the flats which have been designed & supervised by Sane sir.

I think biggest achievement of sane sir isn’t in being a successful structural consultant with lots of clients but the comfort level which he has created in the minds of every person related to the building; may it be the builder himself or the architect whose design he is working on or even the site engineers & fitter which is the last link at site i.e. the person who actually works on the reinforcement! Everyone was always at ease & confident that Sane sir is there for any problem related to the site! Another important aspect is the accessibility, in today’s over packed schedule to reach to the consultant who is professionally successful is the biggest pain for any businessman but when there was no cell phones, yet entire clientele knew that at 4pm Sane sir will be available at his cabin & any one with problem related to site is welcome even without appointment!

He was a role model as not only as a consultant but a good human being. That’s something many of today’s so called successful professionals are forgetting. He used to entertain a big corporate real estate firm & a single building small timer with equal affection & integrity; a very rare attitude when you see today’s world. Never used to deny even the smallest of the work or request from a site engineer also to visit the site & guide him from the structural problem. And he never restricted his guidance to slab & beams but was always eager to apply his mind for any problem related to site work, even water proofing!

Not only the builders who were any way his clients but was on panel of many Govt organizations for structural audit & safety & yet continued to contribute for many social issues in the city. In all he was a complete package as a consultant human being & I think this is the biggest success he earned! Today Pune is known as cultural capitol of Maharashtra & its people like Sane sir who were the pillars of giving this very city that recognition & best tribute we can pay him is try to march on the path he has laid. Real estate was & is never known for its fair practices but if we make Sane sir like figures our idol then surely there is some home left for the industry is all I will say. I was lucky to be part of his work & been guided by him & whatever I have seen made me write this which I consider as my Shrdhanjali to him!! He has converted a small consulting firm in a corporate structural designing conglomerate & his successors are taking the ship ahead.Yet the real estate in Pune will be missing his fatherly advice sure here after. 

Ultimately it’s not the projects you completed or money you have earned makes you great, but the way people remembers you after you have gone makes you great & on that scale Sane sir stood much taller than the skyscrapers he have designed & supervised!

--

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