"Firse Modi Sarkar" & Real Estate !

-

-

“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” … Jane Jacobs.

Well, no wonder with such understanding about the people she could write a book like Death & Life of Great American Cities & yes, I am referring to Jane Jacobs! And when it’s our beloved Pune (well, keeping due respect for my Nagpur blood I am saying our Pune) the no wonder looking at past four decades, the city has done to give everybody something! And recently when one of my media friend asked me to write down something about Pune & it’s  real estate, on the background of ‘ Firse Ek Baar Modi Sarkar” & he isn’t the only one who is curious about the subject! For me it’s like watching a video cassette of past as I started thinking about my own journey for last three decades in this city! And more importantly what lies ahead also is equally important as why we keep track of the past; my answer is, to learn from it & correct our foot steps in present while we march in future! And I am happy to say in just four decades Pune has really transformed from a slightly bigger laid back pensioners & bicycler’s town in to a buzzing with energy Metro! And best part is in becoming a Metro by size of population as well physical spread, revenue it generates, job opportunities it creates & education institutes it has with all graphs rising upwards yet Pune has maintained that charm of town, at least till now! Here most people in a circle knows each others, still the old joints like Vaishali, Wadeshwar, Poona Coffee House, Marzorin Cafe are still crowded with groups visiting them for ages. And at the same time apart from age old shopping streets like JM road, MG road & Laxmi road still going strong, new destinations have come up in east & west i.e. High Street in Baner & Mundhva Koregaon Park till Kharadi in east!

On top of it in a very recent survey by Teamlease Survey’s Employment Outlook Report, Pune has been ranked as number one city in generating employment all over the country & this indicates more growth for the city as well Pune region as now no more Pune is just once city controlled (read restricted) within boundaries of PMC i.e. Pune Municipal Corporation! In any city or region when it grows the public transport plays a vital role & sure with Metro work on speed in coming five years entire Pune region will have better connectivity making real estate too get blessed with this development. Because at present a family or any member of family working in east side of city (for e.g. Khardai) can’t think of buying home in west side (say Sus or Kiwale or Baner) as commuting will waste entire day of the person. But with Metro & supporting transport means in place sure there will be more options open for the real estate buyers! I think the home buyers also should take this aspect in account while buying their home as in real estate those who can see the future down the line three or five years, they only ends up gaining a lot more on all fronts & not just money aspect of the deal! And with rest of Maharashtra failing to generate employment or quality education (sorry Nagpur but its fact), Pune has been looked after by millions as their career destination & for all this migrating populations homes will be required. As this very same report says Mumbai as bad city for generating new jobs, making Pune as only available option for career in Central India & it has a cultural backbone too, which most other competitor cities lack in!

Now the challenge real estate face is providing homes as per the budget of this migrating or say new population & here is where the approach real estate (read builders) will follow, is what will decide fate of real estate. Because with current scene or call sentiment in real estate, many veterans (first generation builders & financers) also are worried & asking each other when real estate will revive? Well, friends, if you meant reviving of real estate means profit margins, then forget it, is what I will say! With “Modi Sarkar” again in power, it means business & its business is to make the home cheaper! And this means lower margins i.e. less profit, less appreciation of properties for the builders as well investors!  But yes silver lining is they will focus on infrastructure like water, drainage, power, roads, and public transport (I hope so) & make more people go for home buying all around the region & not just in some pockets! So more land will be available at lower price because of more supply of developable land with proper infrastructure in place; same thing has happened with TDR isn’t it? Some ten years back TDR was looked as gold but now it’s a burden for the TDR holder & reason is govt (read PMC, UD & all) flooded the city with TDR & end result is TDR market crashed. Same thing is happening with land as more the land in the market (read buildable) more the supply of homes & lesser the margin, it’s no rocket science but simple common sense which is most uncommon in real estate!  There will be sure more buyers for the homes with more demand but these will be end buyers & like any other product they will bargain hard even for homes also. So builder friends, be ready for demand of homes but with minimum margins is what I see the future of real estate. Only those who can work at real low margins they will survive in real estate, is the fact!

At the same time home buyers also must learn to choose wisely as not just lowest price of the flat means best deal, is what they too should understand! These are hard time for real estate but that doesn’t mean it’s hay making for the home buyers as do mind any business survives only when its win-win situation for the buyer as well the seller! No builder will build something from his own pocket & give benefit to the flat buyers just because he want to sale his flats, this the buyer must keep in mind. If you are getting huge discounts & amenity packages along with the home then remember, there are no free meals in this world! Look carefully for the prodigy of the builder as just buying a home in your budget may make you a happy buyer but not for long time in future if the builder himself is not in good shape. In recent compound wall mishap where not just many labors in adjoin plot lost the life the cars of existing building’s residents also got damaged & not the main issue is who will do repairs worth of million rupees for this existing building, surely not the builder as had it been so then in first place he would have done a quality work, isn’t it? Now ask residents of such buildings are they happy home buyers anymore, even if they might have got their flats in cheaper rate in this building! So in coming years it will be very interesting contest between the builders who will obviously wanting to make some money by building homes for this growing Pune’s citizens at the same time the home buyers will try to squeeze the best deal with changed circumstances where supply of homes prevails on demand! Though both sides has to join hands for demanding infrastructure to all these homes because if builders are building the homes then it’s the residents who will be living in these homes & both builders as well flat buyers are paying in huge way to govt as well local body (read PMC, PMRDA or PCMC) & in lieu if we are not getting essential services then no home will be ever affordable, neither to the builder not to the buyer!

On the city front part, there are some things which usually are neglected by real estate & when I say real estate its by both builders as well flat buyers both of them eventually are part of real estate as well residents of this city too! Though our city is charged with fusion of old charm & new hip hop culture as if you look around the history of cities only those cities has survived on test of time which has changed themselves as per the needs of the times & delivered & so has Pune. Here right from education to culture to entertainment to jobs, everything is available for the citizens but two things; and that is public hygiene & public transport! You go to any good city around the world its public toilets & public transport stations may it be bus stops or rail stations are its mirror, reflecting not just cleanliness but its accessibility & availability in numbers for the citizens! And Pune lacks tremendously on this front especially the public toilets as when on every front we have been growing but the numbers of public toilets on streets have been reduced & the numbers which are there surviving, well just go & try using any public toilet! I am resident of west side of Pune & from Deccan to Karvenagar in nearly 8 km stretch there are hardy four public urinal blocks & just 1 WC block & barring one (which we have been maintaining) all other either stinks or has been locked down because of reasons like no water supply or neighboring residents complaining about the nuisance from the public toilet block etc! And the scene on this front is same all around the city. Imagine thousands of people especially women on road for their day to day needs & we can’t provide them a very basic facility like public toilet, what kind of Smart City we are! 

Rather when city’s population is growing rapidly & we are urging more & more people to use public transport & make pedestrian friendly roads (read foot-paths) at such time Nature’s Call is the most essential thing we are neglecting for all these citizens which will be on roads for most of the time! On one side new public toilet blocks are needed & on other side due to poor maintenance of the existing toilet blocks citizens are demanding demolition of the same! Wow, what a progressive city we are; true hypocrites we are!  Actually  first make an action plan of surviving (read maintaining) all existing public toilets & then make a master plan of new toilet blocks & show it on city development plan so as it can’t be challenged as well the neighboring residents will be knowing about the same! As well appeal all business houses & so called industries, educational institutes, IT Co’s & even individual citizen’s too,  to adopt one public toilet (as well bus stop) & maintain it! Remember we can’t be depending on govt for everything, if this city has given us something, especially a home to live, then we also have to pay the city back & what better than giving a wonderful clean public toilet or a bus stop as a gift to the city as it can be used by every citizen!

This city has given me my past which consists of most wonderful memories like walking on the calm streets of Prabhat road & BMCC road under the shadow of trees aligned all along both sides of these roads. The city used to have summer then also but a lot more pleasant, I want that pleasant summer back & the only way to achieve that dream goes through planting lots of native trees & making them grow. Trying to survive the existing trees & yes a strengthened public transport which will curtail emission of carbon mono-oxide, helping to make the city a bit cooler!

Today Pune is perfectly balanced on edge of making it to a wonderful great city & self destruction! Just as Jane Jacob said, its, we the citizen of Pune holds its future in our hand & our approach to life will decide fate of Pune. We shout for public transport but each of us has three to four vehicles at home. We shout against reducing green cover but we only cut trees in our society for making more parking places. We hail city for bad public toilets but we only oppose them in our neighborhood & turns blind eye for doing anything to maintain them & this list goes on! If we keep just pointing fingers towards each other & do nothing, needless to say our future as a city is doomed!

The only one change I want to see in the future Pune is every citizen respecting civic sense & follows basic things like honoring red signal & one-way boards on road & doesn’t make this city dirty by spitting or throwing thrash around, at least by him or herself! Even if each of us takes an oath that I will be a responsible citizen, I think eighty percent of our problems will be solved on our own, what more we want as a citizen!

Sanjay Deshpande

-- 

Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

https://youtu.be/g3lx1Nq7pBs

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

http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2018/08/pune-city-no-1.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

www.punecorporation.org

Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..

https://secure.mygov.in/#

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com

GOT; A Story of a Evil Within!

 ---

-

“There is nothing in the world more powerful than a good story”... Tyron Lannister, Game of Thrones, Last Season!

Well, who can argue with this dialogue or quote though the master mind or say writer is George RR Martin yet now after reading all eight novels (episodes) & seeing all the seasons of the rage called GOT i.e. Game of Thrones, for me the words are engraved on my brain & image of the Imp, played by Peter Dinklage uttering those words will take a lot more time to fade, may be it won’t ever! And ask any Bollywood movies lover (I am one) & he will vouch for the quote of The Imp of GOT as it’s those powerful stories by Salim-Javed only, which has given rise to our biggest Super Star, yes the only one Amitabh Bachhan. So we the Indians do love & respect when we comes across a real good story & time & again we have shown that may it be movies or even TV serials like “Buniyad” or “Hum Loag” or how can we forget the curfew on Sunday roads when Ramayan or Mahabharat used to be aired on our beloved DD i.e. Dur-Darshan! One main thing was common in all those hit on-screen dramas was & is the story of the drama, isn’t it? And then off late even when the power of our story telling seems to be lost a bit (with respectable exceptions) we have respected & loved firangi stories also & the GOT isn’t exception to it! Well won’t stretch your patience much this is about Game of Thrones more fondly known as GOT is a HBO channel TV series based on the novel rather say saga written as Song of Fire & Ice, Dance With The Dragons but mainly you can call it as Game of Thrones, by George RR Martin!  And this is not just about the TV series which has been aired for nearly ten years with eight seasons & each season consisting seven to eight episodes but it’s about the novel also as I read all eight volumes nearly eight thousand pages & saw all episodes accounting eighty plus hours of my last year & a lot more hours which are in the form of sleepless nights I spent because of watching & reading GOT in parallel! 

Now you must be real irritated with  my all this ga ga over some TV serial or a novel, ok for all such irritated minds, there was an era in early 80’s in India, where only two categories used exists  i.e. those who has watched a movie named Sholay & those who hasn’t watched it! Same way even today not in just country, all across the globe (thanks to Hot Star & 4G) there exists two categories i.e. one who has watched Got & other who hasn’t! Well, some may sarcastically say one category is which follows & loves GOT & other is which hates GOT but then this also emphasize popularity of the series aka novel!  So, same on the lines of Crime Master GOGO in Andaj Apna Apna, "Ye Teja Teja kya hai, ye Teja Teja"; same way "ye GOT GOT kya hai ye GOT GOT"!  It’s a fiction story about seven kingdoms & a war or interrelation between four major families or say houses i.e. Tragarians, Lannisters, Barethrons & Starks! All these are names of prominent families & then there are many for e.g. Tayrell, Tarlis, Grayjoys, Bolton, Toolies, Frays & such but main are the first four. Needless to say it’s a war for ruling all these families & yes there is another world which lies beyond the ocean & with different cities & culture known as Khalasar & Westros. And oh yes, there is a Night King & his “Army of Dead” too, along with these entire human race to conquer (read kill) all the humans! The era of GOT shown, can be considered as few hundred years before Christ when Kings & Queens used to rule & the only way to rule was using fear. In this era there is still Black Magic played & yes presence of God is there but only for praying. Here though there are not flying brooms but yes dragons who can burn a city in minutes are very much part of the story. Here people die & priests bring them back from death by prayers with unfathomable powers which even they doesn’t understand or control! These worlds speaks different languages, has all together different rules & cultures but one thing in all the families across both the worlds is common & that is unending thirst for power to rule & going to any level to achieve that power; rather this thirst for power & what it does to mean & women is the backbone of the story & maybe that’s why GOT become so popular! Because deep within each of us loves power but the fear of what people will say, doesn’t allow that thirst to surface often on our faces but our action many a times reflects it. And that’s why when there as a story where somebody is doing what we can’t do, always appeals us most, ask Salim Javed!

Now you will say (those who haven’t seen or read GOT) what’s big deal in it have we not seen or read all these in many Hollywood movies from Lord of The Rings to recent Harry Potter series & speaking about war for power between families there is Godfather which prevails all such fights! And even in Bollywood or our Hindu Mythology there have been powerful stories of kingdom fights Ramayan & Mahabharat are best example of it! So what makes this GOT so special & millions going crazy for it? That is the success of a real powerful story is what I will say as there is nothing new actually but the way the same old story of human greed  has been put together with thousands of characters is what makes it reading or watching worth! Here in GOT its perefect mix of every known story right from Ramayan to Mahabharat to Harry Potter to Lord of The Rings to Godfather! The striking difference is unlike thousands of popular & loved stories of every genre has been based on fight between good & bad or say fight between evil & peace, GOT is based on a fight between lesser evil, evil & worst evil! Confused? Well, this is why I feel it has appealed to today’s genre where nothing is good in totality or nothing is bad, here life is shades of gray & black! In GOT every character has a dark side & he or she portrays that dark side as armor & uses it for survival is the simplest way I can put. Here people kills their brother, sister, father, son & even their love under the name of honor, family, revenge & lastly for greater good! The last one is real joke as when your family chief kills any kid or rapes a woman this can be taken as justice or revenge or to protect family or to create fear among the enemies but if he is from other family (read enemy) then this is evilest thing & the guy is bad guy & deserves punishment!

This story has got violence to extreme level & it sickens your mind even reading it leave apart watching. Those who have access to Hot Star premium there you can watch it uncensored yet reading is more terrifying. I have read many violent stories but what makes you real numb in GOT is the shameless logic nakedly thrown at you behind every hideous act; as at the end all what matters is survival, that’s is what which makes you good is the motto! And every character lives by this rule till the end & keeps eliminating others & here it doesn’t matter she or he is from your family or from others, if she or he is not with you then she or he is your enemy, that simple! This is where GOT hits you worst as slowly if you are serious reader (means if you have got some human part alive in you) then you start comparing your own life story with every incidence & then it hits you how many lives you have taken till you have reached where you are today! What I meant is it’s not necessary to kill someone physically, fortunately we don’t live in GOT era yet that hasn’t stopped us killing each other’s by our acts or by mind, is the fact I want to put forward! And that frightens you most; this feeling shakes you from within as nobody has shown you till now how bad you are actually under the mask of Ms & Mr. Nice!

Many wont like or accept my this outcome or analysis but that’s what it has done to me as this is not analysis, this is just sharing the way you share your experiences of your visit to Disney Land! Off late if you have observed the movies or stories where shades of Black & White combines are getting more popular, may it be latest Marvel flick Venom or even the Avenger’s Infinity War or End Game where the villain himself is shown trying for creating a better world by reducing population by half as he believes its overpopulation which is killing Earth (and he is not wrong really)! Where as in movie like Venom the Hero himself is shown using dark powers to fight more dark powers residing within! I think GOT represents perfectly today’s society where we see everyday each of us doing bad things & covering them up under the tag of “for the greater good”! And obviously those who can’t do that, they have to surrender to the acts of the victims of the badness of the characters with power & yet keep mum as the tag says it’s for greater good! And sticking to this logic in GOT page by page, chapter by chapter thousands of characters comes & perish in most unexpected way rather you get used to so much to this phenomenon that later on you don’t like or love any character as either that character is going to die or its going to kill someone, is what you become sure of!

And then till now whatever stories you have read or seen there is some hero or heroine & a villain which can be a person or situation which makes life difficult for the hero heroine & they love as well goodness overcomes above all the badness of the villain! Take any story till now & it has followed this age old track, not GOT! Here every one is villain in the eyes of others & each time when you come across a character & gets sick of his or her evil acts, the next character beats the earlier character on evilness scale! And like a chain reaction event by event the badness keeps hitting you relentlessly, the same way you face frustration after frustration in real life! As by the time end of the story comes it hardly matters why the war has started & who has won it finally! This is the success of GOT which has appealed the millions following it as the badness around has been used as connecting factor in the story, so openly for the first time & GOT team has succeeded is a fact, TRP figures proves it! Peter Dinklage which plays the infamous character of The Dwarf (a lot similar to Lord Krishna in Mahabharat; please pardon me I am just giving example on basis of central role, no way disrespecting Lord Krishna or Hinduism) is highest paid actor because of this role in GOT with his every dialogue line becoming worth of some million dollars! And the places like Zagreb in Croatia where GOT has been shoot have become tourism rage, all these are signs that the story has hit the masses & bad is the new good!

At the end when the lead character of Joan Snow (well if you can call, then he is hero) has been sentenced to serve at The Wall i.e. a hell like place at sub zero temperature, which has been created to guard humans from Army of Dead; he asks, does the Wall still exists as he himself has destroyed the Army of Dead. On this the Dwarf replies, “Well, the world will always need a place to accommodate the bastards & the killers”! Am I required to tell more that how nakedly the ruthlessness of life hits you in GOT! Well, one thing is sure GOT has made be a different person after reading & watching it & joke is I haven’t yet understood whether its good or bad! Is it that the goodness in me which made me hate this story or the badness in me which made love this story I am unable to understand but whatever it may be it has helped me I am not that good which I used to consider myself & the badness in me is very much real & part of me only! So, if you want to know (read dare to) what you are within, then don’t miss to read & watch GOT & even if don’t want to know what you are then also you can watch GOT (as then reading those 8000 plus pages is not worth) just to know what has made so many millions so much mad about it; and maybe you will find your own-self in the process, as accidents does happens anywhere & any time!

-- 

-- 

Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

https://youtu.be/g3lx1Nq7pBs

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

http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2018/08/pune-city-no-1.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

www.punecorporation.org

Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..

https://secure.mygov.in/#

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com

Tadoba @ 45 Degrees!

--

“The Wilderness holds answers to more questions than we have yet learned to ask.” … Nancy Newhall.

Nancy Wynne Newhall was an American photography critic. She is best known for writing the text to accompany photographs by famous photographers like Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, but was also a widely published writer on photography, conservation, and American culture. Well this summer & I mean real summer at tadoba moharli gate on a noon ride I was observing faces (of those who has dared to keep them open & not covered with scarf’s & what not) waiting for gates to open & wondering what it makes all these people from all around the world not just country to come here & take a ride on such scorching hot noon on bumpy & dusty roads! Well Nancy’s quote I find the answer of my question i.e. it’s the wilderness they gets answers to many unasked question. Indeed most of those faces are here to see the Tiger but when your destination is nature then you find many wonders on the journey, that’s the perk of being in nature & what’s more better form of nature than forest! Those who has been to tadoba & admired its beauty (read tiger sighting) even they also starts hating tadoba & I mean it. If you don’t believe me then do visit tadoba any time between 3^rd week of May to 1^st week of June of the year & then do share your views to me about your experience! Frankly I am comfortable as I have been grown up in this part of country, so 45 degrees is not new to me yet years of comforts in city like Pune does makes you succumb to coziness of life & I am no exception to this rule! The first thing when you come out of your room ( AC off-course) may it be in morning 5 am to catch the safari or at night post dinner, is the hot blast of air hitting your all senses! And then before you have sat in the gypsy at morning ride you are already sweating & feeling uneasiness to breathe! In noon safari which starts at 3pm its worst as you don’t even sweat as the sweat directly gets evaporated from skin & suddenly you start feeling dizzy with dehydration! Well, I am not scaring you just sharing facts about summer of tadoba & yet in this summer where you start hating the heat & everything around & asking yourself why you have come to this place, the gates of park opens & your gypsy enters in wilderness & you soon forget the hating the heat & tadoba as the question paper of life unfolds in the form of answer paper in-front of you in thousands of forms!

Here in tadoba life does get bit disturbed by the heat but it’s part of nature & life cycle in forest seldom stops for anything, heat or cold! This you start realizing as the mercury rise & dust around become part of your ride & when you look around, well in forest you just don’t look around & see but you listen, you smell & in totality you start understanding that you have to feel the forest to read this answer paper! And trust me sooner or later everyone who come here & surrenders to nature (that later part is very important) he or she realizes forest is lot more than sighting some tiger or a leopard or sloth bear! There is fun in everything even in the driest of the season like this summer, we have so much to see & learn & I think this is why most people comes again & again to the forests despite of the tough weather! Had it been not so, then why many celebrities right from Brian Lara to Tendulakar to film stars to business barons like Mukesh Amabani, kept on visiting forests leaving back luxury of their life! I think at one stage of life we all realize that whatever we build or create which we call success is so below par in front of the nature & what better self realization there can be than realizing how poor you are actually in front of the nature & unless you come here, you won’t ever know what is real wealth of life, that’s why places like tadoba are so important to conserve!

Standing under the mid noon sun at tadoba gate all these thoughts came to my mind & as the gate opened  I too got lost in the dead forest around. I am deliberately using dead forest as at first when you visit tadoba in this kind of summer, everything around seems to be at stand still & reason is the heat! Leave apart birds even the mammals also standing or sitting silently under the shade of trees or walking around in search of the water! And at such times tigers are best found at some water hole because even the herbivores animals like Deer & Indian gaur can be very thirsty so an animal which eats raw meat, imagine the kind of heat gets generated in its body for which water is the only solace! Needless to say the summer season makes tadoba a sure tiger sighting destination & all safaris are full. But one thing at this time the action is seldom there as mostly the tigers as well animals you get to see are lazying in water though this may create some interesting scenes as when tiger is in water body then most animals prefer to keep away from water for obvious reason but then thirst overcomes fear of life & slowly they enter the water but keeping the tiger in eye sight as well from maximum distance away from the tiger in water. And this is very funny (though not for the animals) to observe. I wonder whether the forest dept should make parallel water holes so as when tiger is occupying one water hole other animals can use the adjoining water body. On this many will say its nature & we shouldn’t intervene but then this logic is applicable when humans haven’t encroached forests & natural resources the way we are doing right now! Right now whatever animal kingdom has been left to survive, the first target must be to make them survive & then the intervention part can be debated! Also one more thing is the way natural water bodies needs to be conserved as well the man made water-bodies to be build!  Most of the time by digging soft soil cover such water bodies are made but the debris is laying around as well the slopes are very steep making the animals uncomfortable to use the water bodies. I think there has to be some standardization for all such works in forests which is missing at present. Also important is try to make these water bodies near some shade as when its sun up in sky & if there is no enough shade then even sitting in such water also is difficult, such is tadoba summer!

One more thing is condition of the roads; agreed it’s a forest & we can’t expect concrete or tar roads but at-least some comfort level has to be there for the daily commuters. I meant if not for the tourists which are here for maximum three or four days, think about the guards, guides as well gypsy drivers who has to ride on these roads for almost every day. I am very sure the career as guide or gypsy driver won’t be continued post age of thirty five or more without having joints or back problem to every one of them with such roads to ride on every day! The minimum expectation of these people who are very much part of forest is if they are expected to make tourists understand as well like the forests then their well being also should be taken care just the way we take care of wild animals! And again this doesn’t needs any special policy or approvals; all what is necessary is some communication as well open approach by the seniors. What I have observed with the so called system named govt, the departments which have got uniform and the hierarchy among the ranks is a boon sometimes but curse most of the times. As there is big gap between senior officers & actual field staff & both have their own views about each other’s which mostly are negative, needless to say! This affects in two ways, first is lower staff seldom put forward their needs from the work situation in-front of the senior staff & the frustration gets out on surrounding people which is tourists, guides as well gypsy drivers (and maybe even locals). Many my officer friends may not like my such observation but this is fact as in forests & tadoba is just symbolic example, the ground staff which is guards are very rude in behavior & careless about the tourists! For e.g. improvising about the entry system, in May heat the gypsy’s are waiting at  gate for more than thirty minutes just as there is less staff to check ID proofs & they start doing it by 3 pm i.e. when the gates opens. Why can’t the ID proof checking type things done in advance so tourists need not have to wait in heat in open as well gets that much more time in forest? But time & again the ground staff seems to be very much reluctant on improvising such basic things & then just have one look at the booking window, its mess, is the only thing I can say! At morning hours the window is so jam packed & just one staffer at gate & when most booking is online yet how come so much time is required for every vehicle is what I wonder. I am not complaining & doubting sincerity of the forest staff as despite all these issues tadoba’s popularity keeps increasing & so are the tiger numbers! Yet just few corrections in system & implementation can take this place to top tourist destinations in the world not just country. As few things are being discussed for quite a period now but not getting implemented is the issue I want to put forward. There has to be a regular dialogue between all the stake holders & the action plan or say outcome needs to be monitored from the top forest staffers. Things such as opening new routes in the park & let the tourists explore more of the tadoba, is one of the demand pending long. Indeed present Hon Supreme Courts norms or say intervention has made things a bit difficult rather tricky for the authorities but then there is a way out always & shuffling the routes is one such.

Now nearly eight to ten gates have been opened for exploring tadoba yet not all gates have good stay facility, something has to be worked on this front so as to reduce load on moharli gate. One more aspect which is pending is using local surrounding of the forest for tourism as a lot is there to offer around tadoba apart from wild life along. Indeed the people like new FD Mr. Pravin, Guruprasad & Anirudh Chaoji are taking efforts on this front. In buffer area of tadoba there are nearly ninety plus villages with population of ninety thousand plus. It’s these thousands of people who are actually protector or destroyer of the forests depends on how we handle or say utilize them. In one such round of a village I visited on suggestion of Anirudh has wonderful old well (kua) adjoin to hanuman temple & I was surprised to see the construction as it’s not something I knew being build in this region of country. It has two level entries right up to bottom via series of step. The well has been dried up now & being used as dumping waste at present. Anirudh asked, can I have a look to revive it & just when I thought of getting down in well to have a close look my instincts told me to look what’s at bottom of the well first from ground level & needless to say there were three snakes I could count in the well. As what better place than a deep cool well bottom to relax in summers for snakes could be! I clicked the snaps of the well in & around from top, to work on the revival of the well as its nearly some hundred odd years old well & seems the natural water inflow ways have been blocked. Some more tips about the well which I will be sharing with authorities, issue is making these places known to the tourists & let them understand that tadoba is not just about tigers but a lot more!

Recently while coming back to Pune from Aurangabad, in Ahemad Nagar city I saw a wall painted with words “Wall of Humanity” on it. Here under this wall any citizen can put whatever things he wants to donate to the society & the needy ones can take it from here! It’s an initiative by Superintendent of Police there; what a wonderful thing to do!  We can think of one such wall at Tadoba entry gate & let the tourists give away whatever they feel for the locals as well for the forest at large. As forest has given us so much joy & much more & in lieu we all owe something back to the forests as well to the people who keeps those forests safe for us! On that summer noon at moharli gate I realized it’s not the tiger or wild animals which I have come to see in this extreme weather leaving back comforts of the city life but it’s to find my own-self, is the real answer for my reason to visit places like tadoba! I think this realization is the best thing I carried back from my trip to tadoba with a promise that I will come back again with a better vision about the life!

-- 

Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

https://youtu.be/g3lx1Nq7pBs

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

http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2018/08/pune-city-no-1.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

www.punecorporation.org

Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..

https://secure.mygov.in/#

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com

Words of a Wild Lifer!

--

--

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” ...Maya Angelou.

Maya Angelou was an American poet, singer, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. And I have used her quotes many times & it’s my respect for her philosophy that I chose her above words for my sharing regarding my second book, Words of a Wild Lifer”; actually my second book in itself sounds like a term from some another planet, such are emotions! But sometimes things happens beyond your imagination, just like in jungle when you think the safari is boring & nothing is happening, suddenly a sloth bear pop up on road or a leopard crosses your gypsy or you get mesmerized with a eagle diving & snapping head of a snake in fraction of second! Life indeed is full of surprises & indeed few are sweet too, such is my second book. What’s more interesting was its informal releasing at Tadoba gate at the hands of Mr Nitin Kakodkar, IFS, Chief Conservator of Forests, Maharashtra State & he is the person who built foundation of Tadoba on which its standing today. And to add more spice present were Sunil Limaye, IFS, APCCF Wild & Tadoba Field Director Mr Pravin, IFS & all the staff of Tadoba as well guides which are actually the forests by themselves! Speaking at event I said if I am a “Wild Lifer” then you all are “Wild Life” as whatever little I have learnt about forests it’s from you all only! Friends, to understand wild life first one needs to go in open to the forests & it need not be some tiger project; it can be just outside of your concrete jungle, just see that there is no human interception on that piece of land & be part of it. Wild Life is such a school that it don’t need any specific criteria for admission all one needs is humble approach & attitude to learn (read absorb) then everybody is welcome here! I am not interested how many copies of this book gets sold but I am definitely interested in how many people read it & how many of them becomes Wild Lifer by themselves after reading this as that’s my real earning as writer! And do mind, when you have understood that Wild Lifer in you then please don't keep him/ her locked inside you but try to release him/ her in open so he/ she will inspire someone around to be a Wild Lifer, just the way you have become! Friends, Jungles are our only hope for better future & you only can save your future, just mind it & once you accept that then the questions like How, Who, When will melt automatically as all answers lies with you only & the Wild Lifer in you will show the path is what I firmly believe! Here is something which is preface of the book, please go ahead & feel that “Wild Lifer” within…. Sanjay Deshpande

--

“The steel blue of the fern-fringed pool where the water rests a little before cascading over rock and shingle to draw breath again in another pool more beautiful than the one just left - the flash of the gaily colored kingfisher as he breaks the surface of the water, shedding a shower of diamonds from his wings as he rises with a chirp of delight, a silver minnow held firmly in his vermilion bill - the belling of the sambhar and the clear tuneful call of the chital apprising the jungle folk that the tiger, whose pugmarks show wet on the sand where a few minutes before he crossed the river, is out in search of his dinner” … Jim Corbett.

Today when I started writing about my book about wild life, whose better words than the man who made me realize the importance of forests in our life that too when I was hardly of age some ten odd years & till then leave apart forest I hasn’t seen a tiger even in cage! Though the place I come from, a small town in Vidarbha region which is rich with forests still in this age of urbanization, so when I read about forests from Corbett it was easy for me to start exploring them out of the book & what better place than Melghat, which was hardly some eight kilometers from my town. But then neither the term “wild life tourism’ hasn’t yet reached to my town nor there were facilities like Pugmarks & Foliage, which could have taken me to forests! Though luck always favors you if you chess what you want really from within & so it did for me, creating opportunities for me to visit forest of Melghat again & again! Indeed in my town still I could see hare, mongoose, snakes, butterflies, birds like eagle & owls quite often as urbanization hasn’t touched it then, keeping my touch with wild life & making my interests in it alive, yet the time has to come where I really turned a wild lifer! But as I moved to city like Pune, things like career & business & turnover pushed the wild lifer in a corner & I was engrossed fully in concrete jungle for a while!

Successful indeed I was in my so called real estate career in Pune but deep within I missed the Sal trees, pitch darkness of forests, the air carrying fragrance of many leafs with wild flowers, alarm calls of chitals & dusty roads with my eyes looking for pug-marks on them! Worst part was I didn’t know it’s the forests I was missing actually, making me feel miserable in my so called successful life in city! And one day listening to that call of wilderness I quit my commercially successful world & started something of my own where I will be getting much lesser monitory gains like position, glamour & money but one thing I got, which no above things could have given me & that is time for myself to go to in the wilderness & that’s start of the wild lifer within!

Then started forest trips & with every trip to Kanha, Tadoba, Corbett, Ranthambore, Bharatpur, Bandhavgarh & many such places, exposure towards the wild life got increased & so did my understanding about my responsibility towards the forests as well its conservation! I realized just going to forests & clicking nice images with hi-tech cameras & uploading on FB doesn’t makes me a wild lifer but what I do to make one tree grow, one sparrow or one chital live with better way, is what will make me so! And then last ten years I myself along with few friends am working in our little way for wild life. What I realized in the process is extreme need of making common man especially people living in cities to make aware about their role in wild life conservation & for that they should understand need or importance of wild life for our own existence! Outcome of this thought process is “Words of Wild Lifer” as the book is not about how great wild life is but it’s about how great it has made our life! And wild life doesn’t necessarily mean tigers & leopards, indeed they are very much part of wild life but right in city like Pune you can still conserve wild life by creating some greens around you as well at the same time help the tigers & leopards live more happily in their habitat; this is what the books tells you!

One more thing on wild life photography front, I have used all the photographs in the book clicked by myself only. Not to project I am expert wild life photographer but to clear the myth from the minds of  many forest goers, that great shots or wild life moments are only for professional wild life photographers! Forest is for everybody & so are the wild life moments, you need not have to be some celebrity to witness & click, a tiger killing a deer or an eagle catching some snake! All you need is some luck on your side & be open to absorb the wilderness around, when in forest! Lastly “Words of Wild Lifer”, is not just to give message or show how much I know about forests or the great photographs I can click of wild life but it’s my tribute to the nature (real wildlife) for the immense joy it has given me & has helped me to become a better human being! Just before I conclude I cant complete this sharing without mentioning few names which only made me possible to write this book, my forester friends, saleel, sangeeta, shilpa & aarti; from BNCA team Anurag Kashyap Sir & Sharveya Dhongde Sir, Sunil Limaye sir who wrote intro of this book as well anuj khare from nature walk & hemangi vartak who is a forester group member as well edited this book on spelling as well grammar at which I am worst at & with her company Gift Galore she has been doing innovative gifting items for all my forest friends & yes every that person who is part of wilderness, these all has inspired me to be a Wild Lifer by myself! 

So go ahead & become part of my wild life journeys…

-- 

-- 

Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.
Please view my sharing about real estate in Pune at U-Tube link below..

https://youtu.be/g3lx1Nq7pBs

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

http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2018/08/pune-city-no-1.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
www.punecorporation.org

Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..

https://secure.mygov.in/#

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com