Conserving Heritage, a Tribute to Our Past!

A people's relationship to their heritage is the same as the relationship of a child to its mother…John Henrik Clarke

John Henrik Clarke, was a Pan-Africanist writer, historian, professor, and a pioneer in the creation of Africana studies and professional institutions in academia starting in the late 60’s. Its personalities like John Clarke, a country like USA who actually have youngest history yet have been conserved thousands of heritage site; I delebretly not used the term heritage structures & will explain why so in our sharing ahead. The best part or privilege which I enjoy most being a builder along with whatsoever little exposure with environment is I get to come across many segments of the society which rather as a commoner I would have missed! In one such encounter St Mary’s students approached me for their project of which topic was Pune’s heritage. Being one of the most respected & oldest school St Mary’s schools building itself is one of the heritage structures but what I was curious is about what kind of questioner these girls will come up with. As the best fun is to face school or college kids; because of their enthusiasm what will come out of their mind is like guessing a magic hat!

And this time also it didn’t disappointed me as this sharing is outcome of the encounter with those students over heritage of Pune, if there is left any!

The girls have mailed me their questions & it was a video shoot type interview where I was supposed to speak or answer my views on the questions which have been sent to me. I skip the person questions like my education & work but will share the questions here which are related to heritage…

1. What are your views about heritage of Pune?

2. What can be done to conserve these heritage sites?

3. What according to you is the cause for the deteriorating condition of the same?

4. While conserving heritage, development of architecture can’t be stopped. How do you believe a balance can be strike between the two?

5. What do you think can be done by us to conserve the heritage of Pune?

6. Anything else you will like to guide us?

Well the questions itself will give you glimpse of what comes next but before I started answering; one question I asked them which they seems to have missed, rather their teachers only have missed it & that’s most common mistake when we speak about heritage & that’s is “How you define something as an Heritage structure or site?” Agreed with their 9^th std age group I didn’t expected something extraordinary reply yet just wanted to know what they think about the subject. They did fairly well technically as tan heritage is a structure which has some history attach to it & it’s something which has significant age etc. Nothing wrong as even if asked to a grownup he will also reply on the same line. But then we all have stereo type attitude whenever subjects like environment or heritage comes up as we have been taught not to think out of the box.

I told to the girls that it’s not necessary that a heritage has to be a structure in first place as anything man made or nature made in totality can be a heritage site! For e.g. what is the oldest thing in Pune? They said Shaniwarwada, They weren’t knowing “Pataleshwar caves at Jm road; not may knows it anyway! I said what about river? On this they giggled & accepted yes the river is oldest thing in Pune & served also the city at its best. So I asked why have you haven’t considered it as heritage?  Think guys an age old banyan tree in Empress garden or the river or Parvati hill, so many natural heritages we have & yet we forget to even acknowledge them. That’s how my answering started. So in my view first we need to define what we meant heritage & let’s not restrict our definition to just some buildings which have been residence of some historic name but every that site or even locality which has witnessed history & served man kind in some way. I think that should be the definition of heritage & it’s this definition we should cultivate in the kids.

We are well aware of conditions at heritage sites in Pune; as when we can’t maintain our daily needs things like roads & public toilets so who has got time & interest in maintaining some age old structures or sites! Our attitude towards our present gets reflected in the way we treat our heritages & that’s what we are witnessing! I doubt if any Govt or NGO has exact list of all the so called heritage sites in Pune leave apart knowing their condition! We can’t even maintain the buildings which have served us for different purposes we call heritage then what to comment about things like rivers or hills?  There is heritage cell in PMC & then we have Department at State level for Archeology which is supposed to deal with only historic important structures. Yet no one is taking direct responsibility of heritage sites is a fact. There is a list also of all heritage sites & buildings but what we do with them is a puzzle to me! The cause of deteriorating conditions of heritage sites is our negligent attitude towards our past & so called materialistic approach of the current society. We value or let’s say give importance to only those things which we think are profitable to us in materialistic way! For e.g. we will be care about a mall or multiplex which is serving our needs of shopping or entertainment & if anything we found wrong here we will protest but then who care if Shaniwarwada don’t have a decent parking or rest rooms for the visitors as we hardly go to Shaniwarwada for our fun time! This is the main cause as heritage sites are like senior people in our house, we don’t need them so we don’t do anything for them, as simple as that!

About conserving any heritage site, lets understand conservation doesn’t mean keeping it in age old form, but we should keep it in functional form. Like Sherlock Holmes’s, famous Backer Street House, the place should conserve the feel for the purpose it has been used. Recently there was big news in all papers about State Govt funding to acquire home where Dr Ambedkar has stayed in London & some billion pounds we will be spending. No grudges about this move but if we can spend billion pounds for a place where Dr Ambedkar has stayed for hardly two years, what about his birth place & where he has spent his life? Does anyone even know where he has born & what’s condition of the placed now? Similarly Pune has witnessed many legends like Lokmanya Tilak & Agarkar & the list is on but what about their residences & places they have worked at?

Heritage can be conserved by using current architecture to merge the past & present in a perfect way but look at the buildings in city area where Shaniwar wada & many age old building still exists! Look at the recent fly over piercing premise of Engineering College which itself is wonderful heritage piece of architecture! Why can’t the flyover be treated keeping in tune the design features of the college building? Similarly the famous FC road which is named after Fergusson College could have been developed in balancing the college structure but who cares? Let’s remember today whatever we are designing & building some of that only will be tomorrows heritage & we should plan it accordingly as the structure will serve the coming generations & it has to stood on time scale for becoming heritage! We need a policy which should not be obstacle in development; but at the same time aspect of any heritage site’s view has to be kept in mind while developing surrounding of any heritage structure, so the entire locality will assist in conservation of heritage sites. But look at our river or Parvati hill, slums & garbage carrying drains surrounds these sites & we claim that we are conserving heritage!

We have to learn to identify & respect the heritage as that’s backbone of our culture. Make these spots part of our city’s beautification plan & make ways to maintain them by provision of funding as well private participations. Make all the stake holders aware about importance of conserving the heritage of city & we can use its commercial value. For e.g. Singapore has got a heritage map of the old city & their future heritages; they have made a beautiful walking trail connecting all these sites. Why can’t we just copy such ideas? There are many countries around who have been benefitted commercially by tourism on heritage front, entire Europe is best example of it! All our pride is in calling ourselves a heritage rich city but it’s just a shell with nothing inside is reality! As ask our self if an outsider comes to us & asks to show him heritage of Pune, what we are going to show him? So first like environment, make heritage as priority on our agenda & incorporate the same in schools curriculum. Let each of us start thinking on same lines as any city or country who don’t respects its past soon itself becomes a history! Our heritages are our best asset & it’s high time we should understand it. Let’s take top ten heritage sites in city first as a case study, work out on them, make them a role model & then apply the same formula for all the heritage sites & do it fast. Time has already ran away for the poor heritages of this city & if we don’t act now then all we will have is just so called past photographs & write-ups of them & we will be a society without any social aspect in it!

What I shared with the girls is don’t make this effort of yours as just one more school project but share it on as many platforms you can. As sharing is just a start & some where someone will make the difference with this sharing! Best way to conserve the heritage is by being part of that history in present & carrying it ahead. It’s not what we have earned but what leave behind is what going to matter in the end, lets remind it ourselves as there only lies any hope for our heritage sites!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

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Corbett, Heaven of Wilderness!

“I had spent many nights in the jungle looking for game, but this was the first time I had ever spent a night looking for a man-eater. The length of road immediately in front of me was brilliantly lit by the moon, but to right and left the overhanging trees cast dark shadows, and when the night wind agitated the branches and the shadows moved, I saw a dozen tigers advancing on me, and bitterly regretted the impulse that had induced me to place myself at the man-eater's mercy. I lacked the courage to return to the village and admit I was too frightened to carry out my self-imposed task, and with teeth chattering, as much from fear as from cold, I sat out the long night. As the grey dawn was lighting up the snowy range which I was facing, I rested my head on my drawn-up knees, and it was in this position my men an hour later found me fast asleep; of the tiger I had neither heard nor seen anything.”
… Jim Corbett

Above words from none other than the legendary Jim Corbett which I have read when I was ten years old & a town boy from remote place of Vidarbha, Maharshtra! At that age for me Jim Corbett was just a super hero who used to spent nights chasing bad tigers (With due respect now I understand there is no term like bad tiger), i.e. who eats humans & in the process kept showing jungle to many like myself by his sharing! Never in the dreams that boy from khamgaon has thought that some day he will be able to visit the same forests on which some seventy years back Corbett’s feet has travelled & yet sometimes even unseen dreams too come true & so has mine! Not just once but five times I could visit the land of Corbett, last one was outcome of my latest trip there! A lot has been changed since my last trip nearly six years back, the road from Delhi To Ramnagar i.e. town near Corbett Park has become now mostly urban & in very poor condition especially the part of the travel through Uttar Pradesh State! It’s really a shame as well matter of concern for our rulers who wants to put our country on world map that place like Corbett which is visited by tourists across the world has so poor means to reach there. We have very wide variety of forests & a master corridor can be worked out, well linked with each other by roads, air & rail routes, so all the major wild life spots can be connected with each other. Take example of Corbett the only major air way it’s connected is from Delhi & from Delhi it takes at least eight to ten hours to reach Ramnagar! This time can be reduced giving more time for the tourists to spend in forest.

Another matter of concern which I felt as a wild lifer is numbers of resorts & hotels mushroomed around the Corbett forests! Agreed tourists’ needs accommodation & on one front Corbett Park differs from other rivals or say tiger destinations like Kanha, Tadoba & Ranthambore or Bandhavgad & that is apart from wild life there is a lot for the tourists around the forest. Places which are already high on tourism like Nainital, Almora, Binsar & Ranikhet all are in vicinity of Corbett so naturally tourists have options if they don’t get a safari in the park & that demands need of all these resorts around Corbett even more! But in the process what about all the garbage these places produce as well the traffic which is too dangerous for the wild life, I think it’s high time to strike a balance on this front or it will be too late to control! We can think of a separate tourism accommodation development area which will be well equipped with drainage treatment plants as well water recycling & also a proper access to this spot. Here we can develop it as a tourism village & then curtail or stop permitting new resorts along the roads.

Then comes the infrastructure in & around the park & on this front Corbett is far ahead of any park, Good reception areas at the park entrance gates & within the parks makes life of tourists easier. Though the public toilets in bijarani or at khinanauli & sarpaduli needs to be maintained & for this we can use Kanha pattern i.e. a full time janitor at these rest rooms & we can charge tourists for using them! The best part with Corbett is allowing tourists to stay within the forests & full marks for the better conditions of these rest houses in forest. A major issue at places except Dhikala is electric power & high power solar batteries can be thought of as charging of camera batteries as well ventilation in the rooms in summer becomes a major hurdle. We can think of allowing Solar/Wind power companies to adopt these rest houses & in lieu can allow them advertise on the rest houses or else can charge some additional charge to the tourists staying here for use of electric power! But these are basic needs of stay in wild life tourism & can be taken care with little bit of thinking out of the box!

Also keeping the tiger sighting in mind for which most tourists come; the waterholes especially in bijrani range need to be opened up a bit so the tourists can have better look at them if the tiger is sitting in. We can keep safe distance from the waterholes so there won’t be disturbance of vehicles moments to the animals coming at water hole but at present most of the water holes are hidden in the shrubs or behind the trees where the view is totally obstructed. One more aspect is opening of new routes in the forest, agreed there are certain restrictions by the Supreme Court regarding the same but we can close down some & start new ones. This will keep the repeat  run tourists interested as each time if I am driving on same tracks then it might be boring & let biodiversity of the Corbett be also seen is the concept!  One more thought is think of allowing stay at chowkis in the Corbett Park with the scheme, “One day with keepers of the Corbett”! As it will help people understand life of the forest guards who by risking their lives are protecting the wilderness for us & this will help in moral boosting of the ground level staff too! Such initiatives will definitely help in making the two ends i.e. tourists & forest staff gel better way & lots of assistance or support can be generated once the common man understands hardness of forest life & his responsibility towards the same.

About wild life Corbett offers, it’s endless yet I have came across many of the friends who says they didn’t saw tiger in the Corbett & there is nothing! For that we have to blame our tourism especially wild life tourism campaign which revolves around the tiger. And we must understand the difference between Corbett & Central Indian forests where water is scarce in summers so sighting of the tigers at water holes is a common thing, which isn’t a case in Corbett. Here ramganga is a perennial river & water is available in abundance also the vastness of Corbett makes it difficult to locate the tiger or leopards like animals as prey base is available all around in forms of chitals, sambhars & languor’s! So tiger unless it comes in open on the road are not easy to sight & they become shy of the moving gipsy’s. Let’s understand ears of the tigers can pick tiers of the gypsy from even distance of one km & if he is walking ahead he will silently move in the thickset of clerodendron along the road & even we pass from just ten feet distance we won’t know how close the tiger was! At the same time Corbett offers probably best & largest biodiversity we can get at one single place considering the birds’ verities there. And then if you are staying out of the park & visiting for just one or two safaris then you need quite luck to sight a tiger! Instead if you are staying inside the park at forest rest houses & taking at least four safaris then you have much more chances of coming across the king! Then in which season you are visiting Corbett is also important factor as in summer months i.e. April/ May chances are much more than in winter! And I think there is need of a good interpretation center sharing all such information, at least at bijrani & dhikala entrance gates so the tourists will be well aware of such details & negativity about not seeing the tiger won’t be there!

Sharing just few of my own experiences here during my Corbett trip & though I had been always a bit lucky with Tiger sighting especially at Corbett yet there were far more exiting scenes than the tiger! This sharing will make you understand about the Corbett in much better way is what I feel…

“A warm April sun rises over the thickly wooded hill making everything bright with its glow, our gypsy enters through dhangadi gate & on the dusty road heads for dhikala, and my eyes tries to cover the endless expand of greens & blue water of ramganaga flowing through the hills & lone elephant on that stage! A drama called Corbett has begun & now four days I will be engrossed in the script which nature god itself has written!”

“Earlier evening you have spent three hours waiting at one place to see a tiger & you know he's there around somewhere, silently waiting in bushes of clerodedenron, looking at you with those cold green eyes yet you can’t see him; you can feel his presence in the air through the alarm calls of peacocks, sambhars & chital! You have seen its pug marks all along the dusty road & yet it won’t come in open, like he is testing your patience! You went back to your forest rest house & slept with his dreams & first thing in morning is you sat in the gypsy & again tracking those pug marks you went to the same spot where you have spent three hours last evening, the alarm calls rang all around & you know in your heart that a tiger is just feet away & now its matter of few minutes & your luck & suddenly it comes on road, a male tiger roaring & walking head on to you; what more luck one needs in forest & you are happy as this is what called as chasing a tiger in forest!”

“I was visiting after six years & it was just like the way I have left it, rather got more better with the age; the sun touches the horizon painting everything in orange red making the ramganaga reservoir glow with its sparkle & on this canvas elephant's silhouette moves, their trumpeting filling the surrounding! The entire seen is like a dream which I keep seeing every day & night, comes true again!! Corbett, I have visited for five times & each time I love it more & more!”

“The best part at forest rest houses is the nights over there & here you come to understand what it means “pitch black” i.e. total darkness! At late evening at bijrani rest house was just looking at the clear sky with carpet of stars on it, suddenly a sambhar shirked just near the solar wire fence of the rest house & soon followed by calls of chitals, assuring presence of the tiger very close by! Have you ever felt how helpless you are in darkness of forest when every other animal can see you but you can’t! At such times just to feel the jungle with all our hearing senses is the real fun. We couldn’t saw the tiger but felt its presence thoroughly & that’s some experience!”

“You are moving out of forest after checking out the bijrani rest house, the tiger’s roaring image still lingering in your mind & ear & way back suddenly you sight a big bird at distance on a tree & wow its great pied horn-bill, probably the most beautiful one in that size league, at 600 meters distance with 600mm lens it’s a long shot & felt like a sniper to click it! Was most happy with this shot for two reasons as one I haven’t ever seen this big beauty & another the lesson which I have learned at high price, of not packing up the camera till you get out of forest got paid off!”

“From Gahiral to Dhikala the Ramganga River runs parallel to the road at many turns hundreds of flood paths meet the river carrying tons of water during rains to the ramganga! On one such meeting point suddenly our eyes fell on an eagle who was eying something at the same time a wandering jackal to come there. Curiosity got us when saw through the lens, it was a kill probably by the tiger but the tiger seems to have gone for a deep in water because of the efforts in making the kill & the kill was unguarded for time being! The eagle & the jackal both were claiming the kill, for some time weighed each other in thought of getting the kill by their own. But soon they realize there was enough for both of them the tussle got settled & both departed with their share of kill! The entire drama took place in fifteen minutes but made us forgot everything around, even the tiger, which eventually entered on the scene in late afternoon! That's what forests of the Corbett are!”

These are just few of my own examples I shared so as to understand what it means be in the forests of Corbett. Agreed a tiger is the best sight in Corbett or in any forest yet when we say we didn’t see a tiger that’s not fault of Corbett forest instead learn to feel the tiger around, see its pugmarks, listen to its roar & understand the alarm calls of every living animal & bird in the forest & then you will enjoy the same forests much better & in true way! It’s human nature to share unhappiness about what we didn’t get but what we have got, we conveniently forget to share! Ask yourself that didn’t you get spell bounded by the vast grasslands of Dhikala with thousands of dears grazing on it? Didn’t you get mesmerized with the orange sun setting on ramganaga reservoir with elephant’s silhouettes moving on that background? Dint you wonder over the fascinating colors of great pied horn bill & beauty of a long tailed minivet? Have you not noticed the flight of paradise fly catcher which moves like a white wave over the blue sky? At night haven’t you looked at the clear star studded sky & tried to count them from your rest house verandah? In so many ways Corbett has tried to give the best of the sights which we never get to see in our concrete jungle & yet we complaint we saw nothing!  That’s what I called being foolishly selfish!

What’s more is even when I come back to my concrete jungle in city life from such trips while my morning walk suddenly from the adjoining tree comes a chirping sound & my ears notice it & expectantly I looked for a familiar sight & I am a happy man to see a pair of mage pie robin dancing on its branches! This is what forest has gifted me, to look for the wilderness around me, whatever surrounding it may be it still has so many species of birds, trees, grass & I am once again in the forest forgetting my city stresses! Friends whenever next you will visit Corbett, just try to absorb as much you can & carry along those fragrances of rhododendron & sounds of the birds as then you will never feel Corbett hasn’t shown you the tiger as do mind, the tiger has seen you for sure! 

Plz see more snaps at the links below...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/16939159@N05/sets/72157649824312524/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/16939159@N05/sets/72157649783844074/ 

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2015/02/story-of-toilet.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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Battle against Band, Baja, Barat!

"The world suffers a lot. Not because of violence by the bad people but by the silence from the good people"… Napoleon.

No need to introduce the great Commander of all time & a brave master of battles; especially when my sharing is about one battle by some good people only. Recently our small, cozy society was in lime light in media coverage because of a verdict by NGT i.e. National Green tribunal, which is applicable to entire Maharashtra State. For those who don’t know what is NGT, it’s a tribunal i.e. a court of high court level especially set to hear the matters which are concerning to environment. Unfortunate that in a country having one of the best natural resources & yet ignorant about it, not many knows about importance of setups like NGT. Here, only the cases which are threat to environment i.e. pollution  like issues are accepted & best part is if someone wants to challenge the verdict then they have to go to Delhi bench which is like Supreme Court in environment. Another important aspect is success rate of NGT, Pune is 100%; means whatever verdict they have given has been upheld by the Delhi Bench in all cases till now!

Coming to our battle, we Sujal Co Op Society are located on 100” DP road which runs parallel to river Mutha & connects mhatre bridge to rajaram bridge in Pune. It’s in this stretch across the road there is probably only green belt left along the river side. Green belt means only 4% construction of the land area is allowed in this stretch of land & that too for restricted purpose like farm house, agriculture activities or recreational activities like cafeteria or sports activities. This permission is also given only after planting 400 trees per hector so the basic purpose of maintaining biodiversity along the river will be achieved. And there was /is yet a lot of greenery still exists in this belt! Most of us have bought flats here considering the peaceful surrounding & knowing its green belt so the surrounding will remain like that. For few years all was fine but in last four five years the green belt land owners found a new way to use their land for more profitable purpose & it’s for marriage lawns. And that was the end of the peace of the surrounding! As within span of one year mostly all the land from mhatre bridge to rajaram bridge got converted in marriage lawns or restaurants. I won’t go in the details of whether it’s legal or not as that’s not my jurisdiction but the outcome of this use was disastrous! Though none of these lawns or restaurants has any parking provision of their own & all the DP road used to get jam with the visitors parking & worst was the marriage processions with loudest music with bands & DJ’s & speaker walls & instruments like dhol-tasha & what not! Trust me the sound of this all was so deafening that we weren’t able to speak with each others in our own homes even after shutting all doors & windows. And parking of so called hi profile visitors in front of our society gates blocking our entry & exit in our building was another issue & the footpath used to get full with two wheelers parking, with no lawn owner having any proper arrangement for parking. Icing on the cake was fire crackers clouding all the surrounding with their sound & smoke, making the green belt grey belt! And all this was not enough so the lawn owners started giving their lawns on rental to dhol-tasha mandals practice which used to start months before the Ganesh Utsav!

First few months we the residents thought it’s just temporary nuisance & ignored it but later on the marriage processions along with all above problems became a routine! We tried every mean to stop this sound & air pollution along with traffic jam; we met the lawn owners, we made several complaints with police & pmc, we tried to seek intervention from local elected members of pmc but all efforts went to drain. We even wrote to media also but no use as all seems to have turned blind eye on this illegality which was happening in day light in the heart of the city!  The lawn owners took very convenient stand as they are helpless for whatever happens on road & said its police who give permissions to the marriage processions & they can’t do anything about it. When asked what about the loud speaker’s noise in the events inside the lawns as well fire crackers, which also was a big problem; they promised to curb it down but eventually did nothing! Not only that with repeated appeal when the traffic police put P1- P2 boards i.e. one side parking on odd & even days, on the DP road, these lawn owners have got it removed! Only silver lining was whenever we used to coplaint the police used to take action on the vehicles parked haphazardly & the processions but its always difficult to control when masses break law! The nuisance increased to such an extent that many of the flat holders in our society thought of selling their flats & move out! At the end we came across Mr. Sarang Ydwadkar environment activists who in association with a young & able advocate Mr. Asim Sarode has filed a PIL against PMC for road in river & has won it. They guided us to file the case with NGT & Ad Asim agreed to take-up the case.

Next part was to get all evidences of the nuisance the various events at lawns used to cause & then fees of the advocate & most important to get all people of the society united for the same. Here we took the residents in confidence & we appealed the society members that this is the last chance we have or else to sell the flat & move out is the only way to save ourselves from the noise pollution! The people did respond except our adjoining society i.e. Sushilabnagri who in spite facing the same nuisance yet refused to pay any contribution or even joining hands in the case. Yet Sujal society people stood together & decided to go ahead with the case along with Vikrant Vartak, who has a building in adjoining premise! Rest is history as Ad Asim made the entire State’s lawyers to file affidavit against the pollution & trouble the surroundings of such establishments has to face due to marriage processions & NGT after studying the matter gave a historic judgment for ban on use of DJ & Speaker walls & music in marriage processions; though it’s an interim order yet we feel at least someone heard us rightly! Then started the media peoples rush for coverage as this verdict is going to make a big impact on lawns & marriage halls all along the State.

We might have won for now but it’s a half way of the battle only as this case has raised so many questions to me as a common citizen. Why it’s required for a common man to go to court for even getting basic things right? Why couldn’t any of the organization from PMC too Police took the responsibility right in start & intervened & helped us.  We call ourselves a sophisticated & learned society & yet why people who celebrate their events can’t think about other people’s peace those lives in neighborhood & need a court order to stop the loud music? Why couldn’t the lawn owners themselves controlled their clients & make their business with some basic self controlling rules saying no loud music & fire crackers? The green belt policy in itself is a joke as right in the heart of city its just 4% built up area which is allowed how a person can be expected to survive with so less construction allowed? That’s why things like marriage lawns come in picture which is defeat of the purpose of green belt! Instead either declare this land as reservation & give TDR or whatever compensation to the landlord & acquire this land & convert it in green belt by plantation; why the local governing body i.e. PMC doesn’t do it on its own while it watches the very purpose of green belt zone going down the drain?  Why PMC  was blindfolded when the lawn owners wasn’t having any single parking inside the lawn & yet allowing the marriages going on for years with all their visitors using the public road as parking lot? Why the traffic police or local police every time when such marriage procession is on & didn’t act on their own against the sound pollution!

So many why’s & I am sure I am not the only one who faces these “why” each day in our country. Had it not been judicially in form of NGT, I can’t imagine what we would have done! Though the court has given directives, one more question remains & that is what if after this order the concerned people ignores it & continues with their earlier attitude? Like Mahatma Gandhi has said, “Azadiki ladhai aazadi milneke baad khatam nahi par suru hui hai!” i.e. our fight for the freedom didn’t end when we got freedom but it has started; as we got freedom from British but what about our own people who thinks they are the rulers now & who will free us from our very own rulers & their such actions?

Our battle is not against any marriage or against people’s celebrations but it is for making them realize the true meaning of celebrations. We are not against any kind of music or musical instrument but any sound which damages somebody’s ear drums can’t be called as music, is what we want to tell the people having marriages in these lawns. I think here the quote by Napoleon comes in the picture as we all experience so many things around us which we know are wrong & we expect that someone will take care of them & make it right. But we conveniently forget our responsibility about such wrong things; rather we should remember that someone is nobody else but amongst us only! What this episode taught me is to understand our own strength & keep fighting for what we feel is right! It taught me not to get discouraged by the system or the people’s view about the stand we have taken & try our best when the cause we are fighting is for the greater good! Till then our Battle against wrong attitude behind the Band, Baja, Barat will be on!

--

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2015/02/story-of-toilet.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