Vote For Your Own Sake!

“A man without a vote is a man without protection.” ...Lindon Jonson.

Lyndon Baines Johnson, often referred to as LBJ, was the thirty-sixth President of the United States & when I received call from Hon Collector of Pune, Mr.Saurabh Rao’s office, for SVEEP Committee meeting, it’s this quote which came to my mind by the US President. Trust me; I didn’t know such SVEEP i.e. Systematic Voters Education & Electoral Participation named committee even exists! I was bit confused why I have been called & what’s this committee is for, but due to my preoccupied schedule I couldn’t go to this meeting , instead had sent my colleague to attend on be my half. What he reported was even more interesting, Hon Collector conducted the meeting of most of the segments of the society & appealed them to reach out as many people they can & spread the awareness about voting by using every means of communication. We, during Loak-Sabha poll have sent a letter to all our customers as well suppler /contractors regarding making their name enrolled in voting list & it has been well appreciated effort; on the same line Hon Collector expected everyone should try their efforts. Actually it’s really a sad thing where people that too grown up educated people have required urging for a basic thing like to vote! But that’s the way we as a society are, we may be very good as an individual & successful in our own field or profession but collectively as a society we are just too inactive!

This time during Loak-Sabha poll we experienced a sea change in attitude of common man towards voting as first time in years, educated people who normally used to turn their back on voting saying “what does it matters, who comes in ruling?”, haven’t gone outstation for a vacation but stood in queue & voted! Well we all saw the outcome of the same at least in change of power; as this isn’t a political column neither I support any party but any change is possible provided we understood it starts from we as an individual! Many said its wave of some one person, many said its outcome of social media, few even said its part of some party’s campaign, yet the outcome was there & which we haven’t experienced in years is a fact! First sign of a healthy society is every segment is aware of its responsibilities & what more & basic responsibility a democratic society can have than to vote! For me it was a sign that after sixty eight years to our freedom we are learning what freedom means! As there were protests for not having names of the educated people in the voting list, never we have ever imagined that the so called white collared people in the society will be so keen to vote! Well people voted though with all the hype & ho hallh, yet the Pune voting percentage was just above 55% which is nearly 10% less than average voting across the country & which definitely a thing which we should be proud off! Agreed it was up by 10% than last few polls of Loak-Sabha yet very much less than even the remote rural part of the country. What it means is the so called backward areas people also are much responsible than Harvard of East & for me as a resident of Pune its matter of shame!

This time the elections are for State & again this isn’t a political sharing yet if at all we think a change is needed or we want a better, responsible Govt then first thing we need to do is to vote. Democracy doesn’t mean just a formality to vote by a few & form a Govt but in an ideal democracy 100% eligible voters should vote & then the Govt which comes in ruling can be called as a true democratic govt. Imagine when hardly 40% people vote & still when some party get to form a Govt even by having 40% votes of entire voting; then in actual its having just 16% votes of entire voters & yet it comes in power! And then we expect this Govt should understand & solve problem of 100% population! Well what moral right we have to expect a good Govt when most of us don’t even follow our own responsibility of voting, that too it’s just a one time job in five years!

Our State is supposed to be one of the more developed states in the country, on the account of literacy as well awareness about our own self; especially Pune is considered as educational & cultural capitol of the State. But its matter of shame that this so called culture has never been reflected in our voting numbers! Rather with the kind of educational criteria & the status we enjoy as a city, Pune should have been topper in entire country in voting turnout, which has never happened. Rather we are far below here, even in comparison with poor & undeveloped towns in the State. Does that mean our literacy or knowledge is just for books as if we won’t use our wisdom for choosing our representatives, then what’s use of it? And then all year long we are writing letters to news papers about various civic problems under the name of “ek jagruk nagrik” i.e. “one aware citizen”, & feel we are very aware about our responsibilities! Remember freedom doesn’t mean just expressing ourselves in the group talks over the cup of tea in Vaishali or Rupali but freedom means executing our right to vote & choose our rulers.

After all, why we vote? We vote because somewhere its sign of our existence, it’s a sign that we are aware about our duty towards not only our own self as an individual but as a society too. Agreed a single vote may not change everything but remember what will happen if everyone thinks like this? There will be no voter & then that’s the victory of bad elements in the society for which all those who don’t vote are actually responsible. In a way voting is a chance given to us to choose our fate itself! And remember when we will vote in more & more numbers whoever comes in power will be having pressure of these votes as so many people have trusted them with their expectations & that Govt will be responsible for all these voters. So they will have to perform as if they don’t then the very same voters will ask them to perform.

One more thing we need to remember that just by voting & uploading our ink marked finger on FB or Whatsap, isn’t going to be enough. If we respect our vote then be awake all five years & see that to whom you have voted is following to what he or she has committed to you. If every single person of the City & the State & the Country will understand this & follow then that will be true freedom for the Country. As they say, “Every big change has started with a small act of courage”, so let’s vote & be the change not just for us but for our generations to come! And as the quote at start says if we don’t vote then it’s like we are throwing our own protection, & the person who don’t care about his own vote, who will & why should anyone care for him?

--

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2014/09/affordable-housing-some-ground.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

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

Affordable Housing, Some Ground Realities! CIDCO Engineers Association Lecture!

Affordability is a state of mind which is directly related to a man’s state of wallet… Mark Twain.

Affordable housing; challenges & facts!

When my college friend Suresh Thakur who is now with Cidco, called me & asked about can I deliver a lecture come presentation about Affordable Housing at Cidco on Engineer’s Day, in one moment I said yes I will. But later when I started thinking about it as I do get tense always before any lecture but got real tense this time by thinking have I made a mistake by saying yes to Thakrya i.e. his nickname from college day like mine was Pandya! As Cidco, for those who may not know full form is City & Industrial Development Corporation, an organization of State undertaking, which has been established in 80’s for infrastructure development at New Mumbai. Now with spread over hundreds of square kilometer area & technical staff over 400 professionals & mega projects like Metro to Airport under its belt, what I am going to talk, in front of all these people? As the lecture was supposed to be for Cidco Engineer’s Association, so the crowd was going to be all the  engineers with years of experiences under their belt & Cidco themselves has completed thousands of houses, buildings on their own, so my job seemed more & more difficult. Yet again next when Thakrya called to give me guide lines about the topic, we discussed about the outline of the subject & he told me to keep it on lighter tone instead going for some serious technology & figures. There I find the first clue as how I will be presenting the topic & next four days only thing on my mind was presentation. With my team & available images of the subject I worked out a theme & with butterflies in stomach I went for the lecture on 15^th Sept to Cidco Bhavan at New Mumbai.

I rarely write before I speak so here is the outcome…

Dear Engineer Friends at Cidco, 

I am really thankful to you all as well Mr. Thakur who is my friend & my engg mate also, & it’s a real honor for a boy who nearly 25 years back was visiting projects being built by this great organization as part of his 2^nd & 3^rd year engineering & today the same boy is standing in front of you as a technical speaker! What better honor of my engineering education could have been done by you all! Well let me share at first that I was real tense for being here & was trying to think of reasons to say no to this invite even after accepting as was not having enough guts to stand & tell something about construction industry to you guys, but then gathered all my courage & thought of calling this as sharing & not lecture or presentation. We all out there in the field have seen enough concrete, so it may be nothing new I am going to speak about affordable housing which is a need of the country & not just you all at Cidco; yet it’s the topic from my own exposure with 24 years in housing industry now. Roti, kapda aur makan, are three basic essentials of our society & on first two fronts we have done a lot but till today we have neglected the last front i.e. Makan i.e. Housing! Today is Sir Vishvesarrayya's Birth day which we celebrate as Engineer’s Day & one of his famous quotes I will share it here “An Engineer is not the one who solves the problem but an Engineer is the one who see the problem in advance & avoids it”! Well, we haven’t seen the problem of affordable housing is a fact & now we are in state of solving it, though better late than never. For that we have to understand what actually affordable housing is & then why we have failed to make it? As once we accept the facts then we will be in better position to solve the problem is what I always feel. 

Here I will like to share two stories which I thought can be best correlated with today’s topic…. 

We all mostly have heard the name of Mulla Nasiruddin from Egypt, a witty & wise character from folk stories. One day mulla decided to sale of his old donkey & with his young son along started towards village bazaar with the donkey. On road they met one villager who after “salam aalecum”, asked about where they are going & after knowing the purpose suggested them why mulla isn’t riding the donkey instead walking? Mulla seeing point in suggestion ridded the donkey & the set of. After some distance they came across another villager who after knowing purpose of journey, scowled at mulla & said your young son is walking & you are riding the donkey? Mulla accepted his fault & got down from the donkey & made his son ride. Again after some distance another villager they met & who said is mulla a fool? As anyway they are going to sale the donkey so why not both father & son ride to bazaar? So mulla & son both ridded the donkey & marched on. After some distance one more villager they met who after the village formalities scowled them about their cruel behavior & said the donkey has served them till his old age & now they are treating his like inhumanly! Rather they should carry the donkey on their shoulder to the bazaar! Agreeing to this mulla & his son tried to lift the donkey on their shoulder but in the mean time they have reached on a bridge & in the entire effort of lifting the donkey, it got frightened & started to run & in that mess fall down in river & gone! With due respect to all here the donkey in our story is Affordable Housing, Mull is our rulers whom we only have elected & the boy is common man. The villagers are builders, NGO’S  & Consultants. As that’s what has happened with the affordable housing!

Another one is about bind men & elephant! Here elephant is affordable housing & blind men are all of us, some thinks increasing fsi  of affordable housing, some says high rise building is affordable housing & list goes on but we have never tried to see it in holistic way is a fact & that’s why we have yet understood the concept itself!

Affordable Housing is multidimensional & one single aspect isn’t going to define it. So I have listed down the factors which we can discuss in brief as that will give enough matter to our brains to dig them more. That’s best I can do!

Defining Affordable

Land

Infrastructure

Size/Planning

Cost of Living i.e. Services

Distribution to End User

 Population

Environment/Biodiversity

So let’s go point wise through these factors, though as I said lot many things we may be knowing but to know something is one part but what we are doing with what we know is what makes us an engineer, let’s not forget this!

Defining Affordable: 

As the great & witty writer has mentioned in his quote it’s pretty difficult what is affordable as its very individual aspect of the society. But if you consider other commodities say a cup of tea, then you can get it in Rs 5 at a street joint to Rs 500 in plush lobby of Taj hotel, it’s up to us what we can afford yet the tea & the feeling it gives is mostly same. Similarly if someone wants to buy a car then he can have Rs 1.50 lacs Tata Nano & then there is BMW of Ra 1.50 crores, yet both serves the purpose & both takes three & half hour for journey of Pune-Mumbai, it’s again our affordability which decides what we can have. But is it the case of homes? If I have Rs 5 crores in my wallet, I can buy home anywhere but what if I have only Rs 5 lacs in my wallet, now what I do? I can’t get a home in Rs 5 lacs is we all know & here is where we need to redefine the age old terms in Cidco or any Govt housing schemes like LIG, MIG or HIG i.e. Low income group or high income group. Now there are only two categories urban poor & urban rich & it’s the urban poor we should keep in mind with their average income. Not to forget all other increased living costs like education, commuting to work place & medical etc. So how much a family can spend for house needs to define for defining affordability. Then make soft loans available to buyer as well developer so it will facilitate both to make affordable housing possible. At the same time to lift the buying capacity of common man is equally important & what are we doing about it the question.

Land:  

After this we come to most important aspect in housing, the land! Right from learning geography in 10^th standard we know that balanced land use is utmost important for a healthy society but what have we done about it is the crux of the problem.  Land is limited & demand is ever increasing so high time to define land use for housing keeping in mind actual need of the population. And for that get out from age old Regional Development plans i.e. RP & Development plans i.e. DP! Why not to have a State Development Plan in place defining use of every inch of land in State & then micro planning it? It’s nearly sixty eight years after independence & why no Govt has done it, rather it’s shocking that many districts don’t have even RP & then how we are going to provide lands for the homes?

Once we designate lands then see that it comes under the use for which it has been designated. In countries like USA & UK, if the land reserved for housing is kept without developing then there are heavy property taxes for the land owner making him put in use it has been reserved for thus shortage of land issue is taken care. Why can’t we follow such practices?

Then the land rate factor comes in picture as just giving more FSI for the available land isn’t the solution as to utilize that FSI we need to go for high rise buildings & then the construction cost & other factors makes the home unaffordable, so put more land under housing & fast is the key! At the same time keep control on land prices as it’s the only commodity which don’t have MRP i.e. maximum retail price. Our  ready reckoner index decides minimum value of land but what’s control on maximum value & just a guy can hold the land being unused he can enjoy price escalation is most ridiculous thing in our country & it has to be stopped. Same norm should be applied to finish product i.e. home. Unless & until we don’t fix land rates, affordable housing will always be a dream! We had Urban Land Ceiling act to govern home prices & blaming ULC itself for the cause of high home prices we abolished it but what effect it has made in actual, have we analyzed it?

Infrastructure:  

There are three types of infrastructures; one is Physical which includes Roads, Public Transport, Water, Drainage, Power, Garbage, Industries and Jobs. And second is Social, which includes Recreation, Art, Health and Education.

This factor is the key in land prices as like the famous question” Pahale anda ki pahale murgi?” i.e. egg came first of chicken, first infrastructure or first homes is the question. As if we built infrastructure first then the land prices goes high & the homes become costly. But if there is no infrastructure the homes are unlivable as well unsalable! A balance has to be carved in this as it’s the infrastructure of a particular locality which decides in which direction the pendulum of the development is going. For e.g. take example of regions like Vidarbha & Marathwada which have no water, no drainage treatment plants, no industries or road networks & no jobs. So the population from this area is continuously migrating to cities like Mumbai, Pune & Nasik, making the infrastructure in these areas overburdened as well prices of land getting on constant rise here. 

So if we plan proper infrastructure for entire State then there will a big relief of some particular area getting over burdened. At the same time lack of proper infrastructure adds on the construction cost for e.g. poor public transport makes people to have private vehicles & that needs parking places adding in construction cost. In Singapore large complexes are also without parking floors & no one needs private vehicles. Same is case with drainage treatment plants for every single building.

Third type of infrastructure which we rarely notice is Govt infrastructure i.e. a system which controls development regarding housing. We have currently, MHADA, CIDCO, Urban Development, Town Planning along with Municipal Corporation, Municipalities & Collector & Housing Ministry; all these are supposed to work on housing policies as well making homes available to common man & what is result? All we see around is delays & conflicts & confusion, in making policies regarding housing. There has to be one single body or authority regarding anything with housing & make a district level cadre of the same like revenue system. This will ensure fast & simple project approval system  as presently it’s the time in obtaining various NOC’s & making way through the maze of the bylaws which is killing the affordability index of homes.

Size /Planning of Units:

A standard concept is make small homes to make them affordable, like Slum redevelopment units or Economically weaker housing, the units are supposed to be of some 300 odd sq ft, believe me it’s a joke! First it’s very much costly on account of construction cost to make small units for providing them various services & second is you can expect family of four to five people in that small space. So small isn’t affordable, accept it! Let’s give enough room to the people to live & for that work out various model plans which will blend living as well costing. Just giving four or five times FSI & going high rise isn’t solution. As the services cost increases in doing so is a fact. Let’s spread horizontally too, keep lots of common areas to people for socializing & then work out the costing. For this we will have to give reduction in premiums for common passages & such areas so planners will provide more such areas. Have a plan with use of ample natural light & ventilation thus curtailing use of artificial power.

Construction, Alternate Materials & Practices, R & D:

We need to find a answer to age old concrete technology as all its ingredients are from natural resources i.e. sand, metal, clay & someday it’s going to get finished, what we are going to do that day? Similarly we need new Construction practices to reduce cost of construction. It’s unfortunate as there is not a single R & D center dedicated to affordable housing which will collect all the information about alternate materials or construction practices & gather data regarding everything needed about housing. Remember information is the key to every problem & right now what we lack is exact information. Here Cidco in coordination with CREDAI, which is association of developers, can take lead & create a research facility dedicated to affordable housing.

Cost of Living/ Services:

An affordable home is not the one which is low at initial cost but it should be low on daily outgoings also! Here lot of Innovative fusion is required between need & maintenance costing as well construction cost, for e.g., Supply of Solar hot water at one common point on each floor. This will reduce the wastage of cold water from all down takes which is in initial stage when we start solar hot water taps as well laying costs will be minimized. On the same line think of common washing machines per floor. Many such things can be worked out to reduce the daily maintenance costs of the services a housing complex is utilizing. Let’s plan to balance between wastage & need. Think of using rain water by collecting it centrally, open -spaces can be used as rain water lakes reducing water demand.

There has to be separate professional agency for maintaining the services & also a payment system assuring each user pays for these services. We can think of job generating amongst the residents only for maintaining these services.

Distribution to End User:

Lastly there has to be a system to ensure that the real needy are getting the affordable homes & a periodic checking or noc for the same is a must to ensure that these homes are being used for the cause they have been built for!  Many things can be considered while distributing these homes to make them more affordable for e.g. people from same industry living along will make designing of public transport for them a lot easy saving on use of their personal vehicle use! Make all the information about such homes available on web site & update it regularly with information of how to apply for them & allotment process, so every real needy common person will have access to that information. As there only lies the true success of affordable housing!

Population:

This is the biggest threat to affordable housing as land is area is fix & our population ever increasing! With the rate of our population increase we will never be able to give home for all, so this aspect may on face will look having no connection with affordable housing but is directly related in actual! There has to have a root level campaign for population control with a target to see that it’s in control. As slums are byproducts of us failing in judging the population & being incapable of giving affordable homes to that population!

Environment & Biodiversity Conservation:

While designing affordable homes let’s not forget that we are not alone on this planet. There are thousands of other species, right from sparrow to tiger & they too need a home & there is no CIDCO to arrange for any infrastructure or affordable housing for them! So when we design our homes it’s our responsibility to see that there is a space for all such species & a balance in biodiversity is maintained as then only we can call it home or else we will end up in concrete jungle without any life in it!

Finally the developers also should not forget that affordable housing is need of time & somewhere how much profit we will be making from any project that has to be decided by us only! As this is not just Govt’s responsibility but each of us also. Let’s remember ultimately it’s our finished products selling price with which land prices are related! 

To conclude, I will share a quote from my favorite movie Spider Man, “With great powers comes along great responsibilities”. And if being engineer is a power we have of knowledge then to use that power to make affordable homes so no family of this country should be required to worry for their own home, is the responsibility which has come along with that power! So let’s unite & do our best is my wish as that will be true tribute to Sir Vishvesarayya! Thanks once again for giving me this honor as these moment I will be cherish forever.

Jay Maharashtra, Jay Hind!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2014/06/a-journey-of-decade-named-sanjeevani.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

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

Celebreting Teacher's Day!

 “For me those who give knowledge are more important than those who give birth, as giving birth is giving life but giving knowledge is giving meaning to that life”... Aristotle.

Well, no need to tell who the great man is as the Greek philosopher himself was a great teacher & on the occasion of Teacher’s Day lecture for which I have been invited at PCCOE i.e. Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engg, I felt this quote as apt to start with. Usually most people write down the lecture & then speak but in my case I thought reversely i.e. sharing the lecture with you by writing down what I spoke! I don’t know since when celebrating Teacher’s day funda started in our country as in our college days I don’t remember doing so though in our country since long back Teacher’s Day has been nominated after Dr.Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, our Ex President. 

Here is my sharing…

Dear Ajay sir, who is my friend as well, is a rocking Principal of PCCOE along with all his team & you all engineering friends & despite the myth that engineering colleges have dull & bore crowd at campus, I must say PCCOE rocks! It’s not just the looks on the faces of you guys but the energy is in atmosphere & I must thank you for making me re-live my college days once again by allowing me to be here with you all! Let me share truthfully that even today when I was entering in cabin of your principal my pulse rate went high as not used to visit principles cabin; in my entire carrier of engineering hardly I would have visited rather being summoned is proper term to principal’s cabin & not once for the good cause! So today I have to remind myself, I am here as a chief guest & I should not be worried about the lecture I will get from him but I have to deliver one!! One more thing, please ignore whatever my introductory biodata your classmate has read before my I stood to speak, just consider someone who is supposed to sit all the years on back bench has been pushed at stage & sharing whatever he feels. In my college days the concept was pretty clear, the bigger the biodata the bore is the chief guest & I am no exception! One more thing I will like to add to that biodata, I got 93 marks in M3 i.e. Math’s 3 of Second year & to add more, it’s my three attempts total!! Out of which 60 I got in third attempts & 15 each in first too, joke apart the only reason was I didn’t study in first two attempts!

Well now you got clear idea about your today’s chief guest let me congratulate you from getting admission to Engg College & that too civil engg as its considered as mother of all branches & for your first step in real civil eng as now you are in third year of the course! Let me be frank that though I am here proudly as a civil engg, I never wanted to be one! I passed tenth some 28 years back & has been admitted to diploma civil when I didn’t know what civil meant! My father wanted me to be a civil engg so he filled my form & as in those days sons are not supposed to be a rebellion, I signed it when I actually wanted to be a mechanical engineer! And as I got in diploma civil so I have to take the same branch for degree but it’s my teachers who made me understand what is civil engineering & what’s role of a civil engineer for the society & now after 28 years I can proudly say I don’t regret anymore of not going to any other branch!

So, most of you must be happy & feeling elated for being here but have you ever thought why you have joined civil engineering & what you will become after your degree? Its Teacher’s Day today i.e. 5^th Sep & ten days down the line i.e. on 15^th Sep it will be Engineer’s Day, which we celebrate in the memory of Sir Dr Vishvesaraiyya!

Here I will like to share a joke about engineer,…”A man drifting through the air in a hot air balloon realizes he is lost. Just then he spots a man on the ground and shouts out, "Hey you down there. I need some help, I am completely lost." The man on the ground looked a little puzzled and shouted back, "You are in a balloon, 50 feet in the air, 40 degrees north by 80 degrees west." The man in the balloon replied with disdain, "Oh, I get it, you must be an engineer." The engineer exclaimed, "How did you know?" The ballooner stated, "Well your comment is technically correct, but it doesn't help me much. I'm still lost." The engineer responded, "Ah, a manager I see." The aeronaut was astounded. "Right again, how did you know that?" The engineer answered, "It's pretty simple really. You don't know where you are, you have no clue what you are doing. You expect me to solve your problem for you and somehow it's my fault."

Many will say what’s joke in it? As has not the engineer guy delivers all the information? Friends it’s not the information or knowledge but what you do with it is what matters in life! Well, what is the difference in engineering & other branches like marketing, accounts, management etc? First of all understand that I am not criticizing any branch as knowledge in any form & about any subject has to be respected. What I am trying to show is the difference in concepts of these branches of knowledge; a person is born or has to have basic attitude or flair for marketing or management! You can’t make someone a good marketing person out of nothing as its attitude which you can refine, but can’t create in some one. Same is with arts, an artist one has to be from within & you can only develop what’s within. But engineering is a science, it can be learnt provided you learn it from bottom of your heart as then only you will become an engineer from within or else you will study the books, attend the lectures of your teachers, recite the formulas, write them in the exam & get a degree! That will make you an engineer by degree not by attitude or mind in reality! What it means being an engineer is you should learn to use what you have learnt here in these four years! That’s where the term logic comes in picture! In shortest term as per me, Engineering is applying logic! Engineers are respected for their ability to solve the problems the society faces on various technical fronts but as per me the true engineer is the one who sense the problem before it comes & applies his knowledge to avoid that problem than to solve it! That’s what makes you a good engineer & for that you have to give every tiny space of your brain today in what your teachers are teaching you as tomorrow you will need that every word of knowledge to see the problem in advance. Agreed, civil engineering is a vast term & you will be going through at least twenty odd subjects to get that tag of Bachelor of Civil Engineering in front of your name & you will be lucky if you ever get a chance to face more than two or three subjects which you learnt in the field!

But the why we learn all these subjects? Exactly this question I used to ask myself while trying various attempts of Math’s in my engineering days! Why we learn all this when we won’t be facing more than one or two subjects? Answer is as you don’t know which field you will end up in & at that time what will be with you, is the formulas which you have recited & the logic to use it in the field!

I was listening when I was being introduced here & they kindly mentioned that Mr.Sanjay Deshpande is a successful businessman! I am honored but will like to ask you how you judge my success? By the big car I drive or my turnover in crores of rupees, is it the hotels I dine in or the latest brands fashion I follow? My friends, success can never be measured on any of these scales. I agree that money is important as I don’t work for charity but that’s not the only scale of success; I count my success standing in front of the projects I have worked upon & feel proud about being part of them by looking at the people using them & living happily in them! I am in real estate so my output is in form of the buildings which my team has built, tomorrow everyone of you all, will be in the field & some will be working on highways, some on airports, some may be part of building dams & list is endless in civil. But remember one thing that someday your brother may be driving his bike on the road you built, some where your parents may be coming from abroad & their plane may be landing on the run way you have built, some where a friend of yours may be farming on the water from the reservoir created by dam you built! So many people will be relying on your knowledge & its application & standing to their trust will be your biggest success! And one more thing never say I built this project, always say I was part of the team which has built this project, as knowledge without humbleness is not pride but ego!

Here again I will share a short story about the attitude towards work at hand… “Not many years back there was a hard working civil supervisor with a contractor, whose business was building homes. After working over years the supervisor thought it’s time to retire & put his resignation to his employee. The employee reluctant to lose a good working hand agreed but put a condition to complete the home the supervisor working on. The supervisor has no choice but agree so started working on the home his firm was building but with no heart in it, as his mind has been already away from the job at hand. Somehow he completed the home but he himself knew it’s the worst job he has ever done as he thought it’s no more his job. When finally he completed the home & handed over the keys to the employee to his surprise the employee with a smile gave him the keys back saying, he has planned to give that home to the supervisor only as token of appreciation for his years of service! That day the supervisor realized his mistake that he will be living in his own worst creation!”

Friends I am sure the story is an eye opener for many of us & we all behave this way considering this isn’t my job type attitude but then you don’t know what will be really yours at the end!

Lastly on the occasion many will wonder why I have got along my mother here with me; it’s not to show off my status or a style statement but she too is a teacher & what better honor I could have given to her by seeing her son delivering a lecture to so many engineering students & professors as well! Whatever she has done for me as a mother & as a teacher was not a deal yet she has tried to give me whatever best she could, so this I feel is the best way I can repay her for all her givings to me! Same way think how you will be repaying all your teachers & parents for all the efforts they have taken for you? As it won’t be money or costly gifts they will expect from you but you can gift them a better tomorrow for the society we live in, by designing & building best of the structures that has ever been built! And take them to see those, that will be best honor of your teachers as well parents & make them use it, that will be their repayment! Believe me when you will do it that’s will be the proudest moment of your life which only you can experience & enjoy!

One more thing these are the best years of your life, don’t waste them! As right now only expectation from you is to grasp & learn as much you can. I haven’t deliberately used the term study, as that’s not the only meaning of being engineer. Keep your senses open; absorb everything around as that’s what will be helping you in coming years. Once an engineer is always an engineer, so not necessary you will have to see the problems only for which you are being paid for but look for the problems around you & try to apply your mind for the same. That will keep engineer in you alive & ticking always, & ready for any battle ahead! Lots of seriousness lies ahead so have as much fun you can in your college years, read every book coming to your way & watch good movies, spend time on play ground & with your friends too! It’s these times which will be going to be your memories; and when you will be successful in your carriers & look back, that time you should not be ashamed or regretful of your memories, mind it always!

With this note I sign of, keep rocking! All the best & thanks a ton!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2014/06/a-journey-of-decade-named-sanjeevani.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)

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

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