Vision of Life; by Sanjay: 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