Vision of Life; by Sanjay

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Think Green, Think Life

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Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Amenity Spaces, City & the Citizens!

“There is a message for all city makers here. It is that with the right triangulation, even the ugliest of places can be infused with the warmth that turns strangers into familiars by giving us enough reason to slow down.”... Charles Montgomery

What a wonderful description of the spaces which we call Public Place by none other than Charles Montgomery in his book, Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design , where he wrote the above words for urban planners! By the way I am sure not many know about this name so, Charles Montgomery is an award-winning Canadian writer and urbanist. Well known for his books The Last Heathen and Happy City, Montgomery has adviced and lectured planners, students, and decision-makers across Canada, the USA and England. And I am sure the decision makers in those cities as well countries has benefitted by his advice or else we wouldn’t have kept sending our officers as well decision makers to these places all the time to learn a things about urban planning (what they learn from such visits is another topic of sharing though). At the same time no wonder neither our country nor any of our city’s names is included in the list which has taken advice from Charles or else we wouldn’t have been dealing with urban mess we have created under the name of Smart City around us!

Well, with hundred percent respect ( and faith too) in our urban planners who unfortunately neither are decision makers nor that visionary as Charles, that’s why I have used the term Urban Mess for us! And I am saying "us", so I am considering myself as well my fraternity (real estate & engineers) also, at blame for this use of terminology which might (must) have offended many! And the guilty list includes not just Urban Development i.e. UD dept but PMC/PCMC/ PMRDA, Town Planning, Police, Judicially, MSEDCL (MSEB), PMPML (PMT) (along with their various arms such as road, traffic, drainage, water supply etc), Telecommunication (BSNL, MTNL, do they exists anymore!), MGNL (Pipe Gas), latest entrant is Metro rail & all such along with real estate segment & media & Public i.e. Janata Janrdan i.e. we the people. And I will put the decision makers regarding urban planning at last i.e. The Govt which we can call as PM, Cm, Mayor or any elected body who supposedly has to decide fate of any town, city or Metro City! I am sure many will frown their faces (nose I meant) as how come I can keep decision makers of the city last that to while blaming about the chaos our cities have become, are they not the one who can make the difference & decide wisely! Indeed that’s what the decision makers are supposed to do i.e. decide wisely for the city & citizens but then for that we the people have to choose the decision makers wisely, isn’t it? And then after choosing if the said decision makers are not acting in the interest of the city & the citizens who is going stand against them & make them change their decisions, all the names in the list above, isn’t it? This is why I kept the name of decision makers in last as first no more their interests & our (read as common man) interests necessarily match & the outcome is, delayed civic projects, poor public transport, poorest public health infrastructure & the list goes on!

In all such poor list, one more thing has been forgotten & that was & is, public places in the city. Well, there are gardens around & many of them, thanks to the garden dept of the city but apart from the gardens can you name any public places which will serve the citizens, such as art gallery or convention centre or a museum or some big square where people can gather & spend time or any recreation centre (not mall) or performing place or an exhibition ground or say space. And then considering the size of the city which now has been spread over 400 plus sq kms, you can’t have such spaces in one corner of the city but they has to be evenly distributed in & around the city, then only all the citizens can have their own public places or say spaces! And now close your eyes (just a phrase) & think how many such places you can think of or know around your work place or residence, I think, one need not have to close his or her eyes also to answer this as most will say “None’! And exactly this is why our planners or urban thinkers or policy makers have created a terminology named Amenity Space when the DP (Development Plan) of the new area (again don’t ask what old & new) included in PMC i.e. Pune city. By virtue of this provision any land which was supposedly being developed for any development then 15% of that land (if the land is bigger than 1 acre (approx 46,000sft) has to be kept physically open & handed over to the PMC as amenity space! A noble thought which created many problems for the land lords as well the developers as indirectly you are reducing the plot size by 15% damaging its TDR potential as well there was 10% of open space mandatory too. So the plot was reduced to 75% of its original size & if there is road widening then blame your bad luck, is all I can say! And anyways yet people (read as builders) accepted it as there was no other option, you can’t fight with policy makers & expect to win, is the code word for real estate! And so the developments kept happening & amenity spaces kept on getting handed over to the PMC! These were prime lands as all around the city & as I mentioned the objective was to create various public facilities all around the city.

And now it’s these amenity spaces are the reason which is why I used the quote of Charles as well created the blame list for urban mess! Now, one will wonder when the public places objective has been achieved by the planners & decision makers why I have to blame for! Well, because the policies & its outcome never goes in hand as the execution of the policies which fails & due to the decision makers, that’s why all chaos on the front of our urban planning! Recently our policy makers which by now we know mostly works on decision maker's moods (or interests) came up about policy regarding the amenity spaces which are in possession in PMC mean the city that out of hundreds of such spaces PMC will sale or lease out to the private parties' (many will take read it as builders) & obviously knowing our Smart City & it’s Smart Citizen, a public cry has evolved about it. As I have been getting many what’s app messages & online petitions, some against this policy & some for the policy & letters to authorities that how this is illegal etc & some letters how this will be beneficial (for whom) & sure this will go on for a while till the decision makers make their mind & decide about it. Here is why I said we all keep mum till something wrong happens & then we keep shouting to correct it, how we love this game in Pune especially when it’s about urban planning!

As if leasing or selling amenity spaces to private parties is illegal then was it legal to take it in first place from some other private parties, is the question I will ask! And I have few more questions to ask for all of us about this amenity space, as why the use & purpose of amenity spaces wasn’t defined while making DP of the new city when you know you will be getting these spaces, rather right when you were passing the proposals why at the time of handing over only the purpose of use of every amenity space wasn’t defined, wouldn’t it be easy that way? Well, we are not good when its vision agreed but then many of the amenity spaces are in possession since last ten or more years why our policy makers didn’t tried to put forward a proposal to create a master plan of all the amenity spaces in possession & define uses or purposes of the same according to need of the localities? Why the provision to build the so called amenities wasn’t made on a single such amenity space in last ten years (or more)? In any reservation land policy (to my little logical knowledge) when you take away land from a private owner under name of reservation & later you don’t use it but decide to sale it to another private person, then doesn’t the original owner has first claim on such land? While giving away, I mean selling or leasing such amenity space have our policy makers decided what kind of amenity will be developed on such lands, has any such study or master plan is in place or will it be at the wish & will of the buyer of such land to decide use of the amenity space? And if it’s so then who will guarantee that such use will be followed post construction, what infrastructure our civic body has to keep control if the amenity spaces get misused? And if there is no such policy & its will & wish of the private party to decide the use of the amenity spaces then what guarantee is there that such purpose will act in benefit of the citizens who needs that amenity space for some different purpose? Why such amenity spaces are not being leased on revenue sharing basis to other govt/semi govt organizations like MSEDCL, PMPML, BSNL (does it exists?), MGNL, Metro (well, well) or State Transport , Police, Registrar Offices (revenue dept), MHADA, Public Health Dept (At least this we should), Disaster Management (yes there exists such dept); as all these depts' are always crying over not getting enough spaces in & around city because of the souring land prices & shield their poor services to the citizens behind this reason! And last but not least if you are making a policy of giving up existing amenity spaces to private parties anyways, then why not remove such conditions itself for sanctioning new projects & create more amenity spaces a process which is still ongoing every day for every new proposal?

I know few wise minds which are reading my sharing will smile to themselves about my foolishness of asking above questions as the famous Galib has said; "Kisase wafa ki ummid karte ho Galib, is shehar me to parchayianbhi apani nahi rahi ab"! With due respect to Galib, it means, "from whom you are expecting trust guys, as in this city even your reflection in the mirror doesn’t looks like what you are! It’s a phrase I used to explain the scene around us on the front of urban planning as when entire policy process works in reverse way, i.e. first you decide something what you are going to do anyway & then you start making policies & call it as a planning, then the outcome is bound to be a chaos for many, which may not be for a few & these few are the decision makers! I am not in favour of selling amenity spaces nor am I opposing the policy to sell the amenity spaces, all I want to point out is it’s high time for we the people to decide our city’s fate & then act accordingly! The recent pandemic has exposed our weaknesses on many fronts right from less hospital beds to lesser Doctors & trained staff to man power for handling such panic situations & at the same time we couldn’t provide citizens safe homes where they can maintain social distance & it was just one pandemic! We are a failure to handle heavy rains & we are a failure to handle lesser rains too! We were already in dreadful condition on traffic management front & today if we are seeing clear roads that’s outcome of pandemic & not our credit! And I am not even thinking about education or social fronts! Guys, urban planning is not just few polices about some land, it's about people & their lives, not lifestyle of just a few!

Amenity space's use realted policy is just tip of the iceberg of our short sightedness as today we are not yet recovered from the war with an unseen enemy & this won’t be the last war even if we win, if at all something can save us as a society then it’s what we plan today & execute tomorrow or else there won’t be day after tomorrow, for sure; is all I want to share!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

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

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2020/06/a-good-home-is-good-deal.html

Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..

Think Green, Think Life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4xX7eopH5o&t=5s

Thursday, October 15, 2020

Nature's Anger or Human's Foolishness!

“Earth, water, fire, and wind. Where there is energy there is life.”... Suzy Kassem

Suzy Kassem is an American writer, poet, philosopher, and multi-faceted artist of Egyptian origin. The granddaughter of a well-known sage in 19th century Cairo, mysticism and wisdom run through her blood just as the water of the Nile flows through her veins. And no wonder our ancestors who might have been from any origin has always respected all above elements which makes the nature & many of the cultures has given these elements status of the god as they knew the power nature has got in it! And what Suzy Kassem is referring in her quote is energy which all the nature’s elements contain which is a power in itself. Over the years (actually thousands of years) man has been surviving on this nature’s energy & so has been millions of other species of trees, birds, fish, animals & many such but then the man has got brains & along with the brain comes ego! And it’s this ego which has made the man thinks he has understood the energy of the nature’s elements or say key behind the power of the nature! And thus the man started building dams which can hold the water, the man started making aeroplanes & space shuttles to conquer the sky, the man started controlling fire for his own benefit & the man started deciding use of the land thus controlling earth & eventually the man started thinking himself as a god more powerful than the nature!

And my sharing is about this acts of we the humans & reason for that is two video clips which I recently received (needless to say as forwards) on whatsapp, where else) in which havoc created by rains in Mumbai & Pune has been clicked by someone! That way we keep on receiving hundreds of such from all over the world, why just Mumbai-Pune & many will comment what’s big deal in it! Rains are a common thing & we are used to complain if it rains heavily & if it doesn’t rain then also! Agreed & exactly this is what I think high time we need to think over though Green House effect, Global Warming, Pollution, Threat to Nature & Environment, Arctic (Icebergs or Ice Caps of earth) are melting, Sea levels are raising & all such news are making headlines since long & are favourite subject of many block buster Hollywood movies also. But thing is except few researcher or scientists & few frantic environmentalists (well, that’s how they have been tagged) nobody believes it & most of the world thinks it’s not their business & they have many worries to live for than nature! I don’t blame most of the world as before the present pandemic hit the world & got it to stand-still nobody ever believed such thing can happen to the entire world but it happened, isn’t it? And why the world, I am staying in Pune for last 30 years & the way rain pattern has changed in just last few years its a warning in a way as just when I started writing this piece the way rains have hit submerging the localities which never has seen floods. One of my firends commentd about the way rain hit the city, (on whatsapp) ”this is anger of the nature, not just rains!”

Forgive me if I am sounding like some frantic environmentalist character which keeps on waving red flag all the time in the Hollywood movie but what we are witnessing around of late is surely not just coincidence may it be heavy rains or odd weather in the form of extreme heat or humidity (last week I was walking on road & checked on Google, humidity in Pune was 98%!) which has not been never ever experienced & same is thing in many parts of the worlds including Europe also; all this indicates what? This is I want to ask the experts in the field of environment or science! Rather more than the experts, to the rulers of the world as researchers, scientists, analysts can give you figures of the probable damage or damage happened because of natural catastrophe but it’s the rulers of the country or the world which are supposed to act on this information to avoid such disasters or to minimize the damage from them! Again many will ask, isn’t all such weather changes also are part of the nature, as these environmentalists cry over more rains & cry over lesser rains also & same is applicable to every aspect of the nature. If tiger’s population decreases there is a problem & if it increases then also there is a problem, what your real problem guys, which are shouting about damage being done to this so called nature! Well, first I am not an environmentalist I meant not just environmentalists, I am an engineer, a businessman too & all I want is to point out that the balance of nature is not right!

Yes, less tigers are a problem but more tigers too are a problem as in nature there is nothing like less tigers or more tigers only if you allow nature to do its job! It’s this balance which has been a problem as our (read as humans) ever intervention in every aspect of the above five elements i.e. fire, wind, sky, earth & water only has created this imbalance & we blame nature for it! As take example of tiger's, just because it’s like apex of wild life chain so mentioning tiger & people likes to speak about tiger! Well, for thousands of years tigers were roaming freely across this planet & adjusting themselves to the changes of the nature & has survived just like many other species. As there have been earth quakes, ice age & then volcano eruptions & oceanic changes & tectonic plate movements, so there were heavy rains, cyclones, draughts & many such natural phenomenons as that are part of the life on the earth. And all this the tiger has survived & evolved, as that’s been done by the nature but in last few hundred years (rather last hundred years) when the man started taking nature's power in his hands then we started using those powers for just our comforts & benefits resulting we on one side says "Save Tiger" but from whom we are supposed to save the tiger; answer is, from we the humans only! As we cut the forests where the tiger use to live & to hunt, we polluted its water sources as well drive away his food by building roads from his home, submerging forests under the dam backwaters for our drinking or industries & for building our home & growing our food we took away tigers home i.e. lands under forests & we no try to save it by making protected forests. And now when the number of tigers grows we don’t give them the land the tigers need to live & when they attack on humans & our cattle we again shout against tigers! Had the nature kept deciding fate of the tigers then this imbalance it would have never allowed to happen & tiger population, less or more wouldn’t have been the problem ever!

And this is just one example of one specie named tiger, such things are happening with thousands of the species which were happily being living balanced life ruled by the nature until humans stepped in! And then we didn’t stop just at ruling the lives of other species, we tried to change the course of the rivers for our benefit under the name of agriculture or power generation, we tried to build dams & create lakes for our water supply, we cut down the water source to existing fresh water lakes & polluted them for our greed naming them as need, we broke down hills & we tried to invade mountains for making our homes or building forts, we dug earth for taking out minerals, we conquered sky by flying thousands of aeroplanes & in the end polluting sky also with our jet engine’s emissions, we scraped earth's natural surface & concertized it for our comforts thus reducing earth’s water absorbing capacity & lowering ground water tables & we started deciding land's use by forming departments like Urban Development! And not just that we tried to push the oceans which covers more than eighty percent of the earth's surface & thought we have conquered all the five elements & have become god by ourselves! Lol, what fool we have made our own selves, we the human gods! And outcome was going to make nature angry which never actually punishes anybody but just reacts for our action! And what it did, it made ice covers melt causing untimely floods, it started changing seasons which affected our crops, it started making the thermometer sour toppling our public health, it started raining so heavily that for days & weeks, our so called smart city's comes to stand still & on other side it started holding the rains again making smart city's citizens running for water which is a basic need. It started creating landslides & cloud bursts & get along cyclones & tsunamis in oceans & we can’t do anything about it but name to each other for our deeds!

Well, if you still think this is writing of some frantic environmentalist, then frankly I don’t care what you think as this is happening right around each of us in whichever city or town we may be living on this planet! And if you think this too is nature's fault then well, be happy with whatever you think!

Time is not gone yet because as an engineer I will never say don’t create comforts for human beings, just know that every specie needs its own comfort & nature is the god because it tries to gives comfort to every specie & not just one of it just because that specie has brain & hands & legs to use that brain! This is the reason, humans will never become a god as the god means balance & that’s why it’s only the god which deserves that power which comes from the energy of all the elements as he (or she) knows how to use that power balancing all lives! Without that balance any power in any hands makes the face behind those hands a demon, which we are proving every day; mind it guys & wake up till it’s too late, is all I want to say on closing of the Wild Life Week! As in the nature there is no anger, no revenge or no punishment, there is just correction of the mistakes done due to imbalance! If we think all such natural calamities or disasters happening around are anger of the nature then I will remind you a dialogue famous in Bollywood by King Khan, “ye to Trailer hai, Picture abhi baki hai mere dost! “

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

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

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2020/06/a-good-home-is-good-deal.html

Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..

Think Green, Think Life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4xX7eopH5o&t=5s

Thursday, October 8, 2020

Real Estate Vs Guns!

“I don't see any reason to let law interfere with justice around here. We never did before.”... Sid Fleischman

Albert Sidney Fleischman, or Sid Fleischman, was an American author of Ukrainian ancestry who worked on screenplays, novels for adults, and nonfiction books about stage magic. His above words are from Western Movie script & no wonder it shows culture of the USA back in late 1800 & early 1900 century where justice was instant & at the hands of everybody with the gun, Wild Wild West, indeed it was! USA was & is gun loving country as above words of Sid flows in their veins still & they have paid dearly for their gun love which we keep on witnessing periodically for the public shooting incidences all around that country! Those were such times in USA, frustration everywhere & the only way people felt to settle the dispute (which were common over smallest of the tings) was to shoot the other person & name it as justice as obviously the dead can’t claim or name justice! Speaking about law, well, you can make any law but unless you don’t have a system in place which makes people respect (or fear) those laws & make them obey or follow it; the law by itself is useless! Exactly that was the case in wild west then, laws were there but no law enforcement system & outcome was everyone who has a gun in his (or her) hand used to think he is the law & gun is the way to deliver the justice!

Well, why I chose Sid’s above words is, today in our country peace loving (is it really?) we are nearly if not exactly in the same situation where law are in place & system also to enforce the laws. But the masses (read as common man) doesn’t believes that he or she will get the justice with the present law & the system which is supposedly enforce it & I am saying this with keeping due respect to many of my friends which are part of the system which we call the govt at large & Police or Judicially or Revenue in pieces! And at the same time we the common people are also part of the very same system is we conveniently forget as no law can be followed just by enforcing it as the followers also should be in mind set or show willingness to follow the law! This is exactly we all forget & prefer to play blame game especially when some incidence happens which awakens us from the myth that we are living in a peaceful law abiding so called civilized society! Actually many law breaking incidences keeps happening all around us every day; just take an example, if on a traffic signal hundred vehicles are waiting & two or three out of them jumps the read signal then we still can say it’s a good law abiding society but what if just two or three vehicles’ respect the red signal & wait but rest all doesn’t follow & jump the red signal, what society you will call it? And if ninety people out of hundred, jumps the red signal will you call it as justice, as the line between justice & injustice is defined by the law (at least that’s what I feel) & a law is made for the masses, so does it means that if masses doesn’t follow a law or break it, that can be called a justice? Well, this is tricky thing as to define justice first you have to define right & wrong in greater good for the masses or the society & then only you can make laws on those lines & it’s this right & wrong definitions is what differentiates a civilized society from the animals (sorry animals, as they too are better than us many a times as a society)!

Now if you are wondering where all this is leading & where is real estate in this then let me tell you real estate is today’s Wild Wild West actually & reason for all above law school stuff is one builder (one more I mean) got shot over land dispute by his rival party in stark day light near Collector office & Police Commissioners office of peaceful, cultured Smart Pune city & my one fellow builder friend asked me what Credai i.e. association of the builders is doing about this incidence? Well, Credai can ask what Police are doing about it, Police in turn can ask what was the builder doing as the opposite party got so desperate to take law in hand & settle the dispute & common man won’t ask but will say, this was bound to happen for the greed of the builders for the money & land, which goes hand in hand! This isn’t first time some builder or any name related to land or real estate has been shot dead over dispute & sure won’t be last unless we learn to understand the civilization as well define our good & bad while we do our business is what I personally feel! Well, the office bearers members of Credai went & had meetings with senior police officers & got assurances about safety & security though keeping all due respect to the developer who has lost his life & his family, I will share my views not just about this case but many such in the real estate! I want to clear in first place that whatever it may be killing someone over a dispute is not justifiable by any means neither approved by the law! Yet when someone kills a living human being over a business deal then it needs to be introspected by the fellow business fraternity at least if not others!

First, understand the nature of the real estate, over the years this industry has enjoyed fame & money & both things are like magnet for the criminals is a fact. At the same time you open any page of the human history most murders (war) has happened for only two reason, woman or money & real estate has got money in the form of land! And then these are troubled times with lots of youth with hot & empty head & hands which gets frustrated & reacts over smallest of the reasons violently, are available to do dirty jobs at cheap rate! Well, in the end these youths pay heavily for the dirty job but then till that time its too late for them as well the victim! And this is where (and why) people in real estate must deal with humble & transparent approach & with lesser greed which in future can be cause of violent outcome. At the same time be very careful with whom you shake hands with while entering in to any land deal or processes there after i.e. construction or lisioning types. As because of the easy money (many people thinks that way) many wrong entities has joined real estate’s different fields under the masks like Security Services to Lisoning Consultants etc & needless to say all such agencies are non-professionals with their loyalty or say love tied with only one object & that is money!

And a real estater must be careful while choosing any of the agencies as not always a guy who offers his services at cheaper rates & assures faster results with his muscle power will be good for your health in the long run! As once such men comes in contact with you & knowing their loyalty with only money no wonder they turn their muscles on you only sooner or later & that day you can’t blame only Police or the system which is supposedly to enforce the law! As well while demanding justice & the law first check your stand i.e. on which side of law you are standing is one more thing I want to share with fellow developers as most of us suddenly realize the importance of terms like moral & law & justice only when they end up on wrong side of it!

I understand many names from my profession wont like my words about the way real estate is been looked at but then nobody likes a strong & bitter tasted medicine which is essential a times & this doesn’t mean all are bad or doing wrong in real estate. This means those who are doing their business in right way must be more vocal about the problems in the system & those who are not, should learn a lesson from such incidences & start doing their business in right way!

Regarding why someone chose to take a gun in the hands & try settling a business deal with a bullet, it’s high time (it was already) for the system or say people sitting in the system to think & worry about. As today a businessman has been killed over some land dispute; tomorrow the revenue officer signing the order of ownership of any land or a PMC building inspector sanctioning the plans of any project or an electrical engineer releasing connection of electric meter, any such can be on the wrong end of the gun! This happens because the person holding the gun thinks one he is not going to get justice by the people who are occupying the chairs in the system & second he can get away by killing someone by buying the very same people in the system! In both ways outcome is death for someone just because a deal went sour & that somebody can be any one of us, on any day, over any deal, mind it guys & choose your way of doing business or doing your duty!

I repeat to conclude, I have full sympathy for every life which has been lost to some gunshot for settling a dispute & it certainly deserves justice, only if we ourselves also live by the laws which are for the justice!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

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

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2020/06/a-good-home-is-good-deal.html

Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..

Think Green, Think Life