Sunday, March 27, 2022

Sparrow's Battle for Surviving from the Humans!












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“Look at the sparrows; they do not know what they will do in the next moment. Let us literally live from moment to moment” … Mahatma Gandhi

“I am not worried about the things which humans are unable to do but I am worried about the things which humans are able to do’... Confucius.

Two quotes about the same subject & the reason is, of-late I have realized there is so much knowledge in the words of great people like above two names that using or say summing up the topic in just one quote is getting more difficult for me, that much options are available for any subject I chose to share my views on! So, I started using two or even more quotes & this time the subject is dear to every one of us i.e., the Sparrow as mostly all of us have grown up listening to stories of Kau-Chiu (Crow & Sparrow), unfortunately crows are still here in our concrete jungles we call growth & development but the poor sparrow (weak she has always shown, even in the folk stories) has been driven away from the cities & towns which are our homes! So much is the genocide (a in thing or terminology at present) with the sparrows we have done that finally we are required to celebrate World Sparrow Day & that’s why the topic as recently on 20th March which is celebrated as World Sparrow Day, I have been invited as one of the chief guests. The event has been organized by Umesh Waghela who is my friend & a trekker as well as a wildlife conservationist via his organization “Alive”!

There were many events organized involving mainly the kids (a very good thing) along with grown-ups also around the theme Sparrow!  Right from poems to short stories to painting competitions to tag-lines, anything you can think of for conservation of the sparrows was there & I was chief guest for the prize distribution of these competitions!

Along with me was Dr Pujari & Dr Anil Mahabal as chief guests & Dr Pujari who is a Physicist by academics gave an eye-opening presentation about the sparrows & their journey from last nearly twenty thousand years till now & the evolution this great species has sustained or seen! A bird once so common sight for all of us but today in our own Pune city tell me how many of you have last seen a flock of the sparrows or even a pair of the sparrows nesting around your home or work space! I will be happy even if fifty percent of the readers answer positively but I know the defeat already is for the sparrows as most of us will have to scratch our head to remember to answer “yes, we have seen the sparrows” as it is not that common sight now! I was listening to the prize-winning poems & observing the paintings as well tag lines & all of them were targeting one common thing & that was, we are cutting the trees, building the concrete structures & taking away the space which a sparrow needs for her living! Yes, there was one more aspect in many presentations (creatives) that one reason of birds like sparrow are getting away from the cities is mobile transmission towers, about which I will comment in the end but let’s focus on reason of sparrows or any such birds getting obsolete from our cities which was my speech’s core as a chief guest!

At the start only I thanked Umesh & his team for showing the courage to call me as chief guest as how I can forget that I am a civil engg. as we are builders by my profession & after going through all the presentations most kids have named these two fraternities as the main enemy of the sparrows! Well, I told to the audience that indeed I am an engineer & a builder too but every person sitting in this auditorium including the participant kids are my (or some builder’s) clients as a civil engg. or as a builder & that makes all of us part of the crime of driving the sparrow out of the city, right? The need of today to conserve the sparrows (read as need of the sparrows) is not blaming each other but making the sparrow's needs part of our lifestyle, may it be a home or a road or industry or a mall! As just the way we need our home, a sparrow also needs her home & it's not about the homes or human’s development which has driven the sparrow away from our cities but our attitude towards our own homes as well other structures which we call development, has done it! Because for ages the sparrows were happily living along with humans becoming an inherent part of their settlements & that’s why the name of the most common species of the sparrows is, “House Sparrow”!

And for that we need to understand basic living needs of sparrows (and other such birds) & trust me they are very minimal needs & requires no additional cost for any developments of ours. All it needs is a green mind as well as being able to curtail our greed of keeping every possible piece of the land with us only! All that a sparrow needs is, regular supply of grains as her food, some insects, some dry grass, leaf, little open land with soil exposed on it & some quietness i.e., lesser noise as well air pollution! Because unlike Baya Weaver sparrows can’t build their nests hanging or out of nothing with leaf & grass but they need a secured space for supporting their nests with all above things around to breed & grow their chicks & exactly we are not giving them these very basic things! If you don’t believe me, then take a look at any of our buildings & what you see? All concrete or galls elevations giving no space to sparrow to build their nests, we don’t keep smallest piece of the land with soil but use for our car’s parking or swimming pools or our so-called landscaped gardens & on top of that we have every type of sound pollution right from honking cars to DJ’s & fire Crackers & the air we breathe isn’t good enough even for strongest of the humans, so how we expect a sparrow like delicate specie to breath it & yet survive! So, each of us should ask his or her builder or industrialist as well to the govt (builder of roads, railway stations & air-ports), what are they doing to accommodate a sparrow while constructing any of the above structure they builds & unfortunately no client or user of such structures asks this question, is a fact!

Coming back to the mobile tower aspect on the sparrow front, my own experience or logic is that birds all around the world have survived these towers & I have seen many birds making these towers as well the structures around them as safe places for nesting. And to my knowledge till now there is no scientific linking of mobile towers being a threat or harming any bird!

It’s all our developments where we forget to accommodate needs of the sparrows is the main reason the sparrows have left with only one option & that is leave the humans & find a new home & trust me with increasing urbanization its not an easy job & barring one sub-specie, the sparrows have not been evolved fit for migration; so, what happens to the sparrows? Simple, they die or say stop breeding & vanish from our life! Yet there is hope as we can restore this cute species with a little bit of consideration as sparrows are tough species & have survived for so long along with the humans but it's not the job of one person or a fraternity but of the entire society. In his presentation, Umesh has mentioned one of his team’s initiatives, i.e., giving a day for nature. I appealed to the audience, if we want to call the sparrows back in our cities & homes, then just giving one day in a calendar year won’t be enough, instead each of us should give ten minutes of every day to the sparrows as there only lies some hope for the sparrow or all we will be left with is, celebrating World Sparrow Day but without the sparrows in that world!

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Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

 

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

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2021/09/choosing-right-home.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2021/09/blog-post_21.html


Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/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

Saturday, March 19, 2022

"Kashmir Files", Ours & Theirs!

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“Movies can and do have tremendous influence in shaping young lives in the realm of entertainment towards the ideals and objectives of normal adulthood” … Walt Disney

“In any war truth is the first causality” … Star Wars

Two names, which as the first quote says, I don’t know about rest of the world but has big (read as biggest) impact on me since my childhood & now I am fifty plus yet the impact Disney & Star Wars (Movie series) has made on me is going strong!  If you don’t know Star Wars then I can forgive you, it’s a fiction movie franchise produced by George Lukas & Steven Spielberg (which later got detached from the franchise) & a wonderful mix of science, philosophy & psychology. But if you don’t know the name Walt Disney then I can’t forgive you & will advise watch at least ten movies of Disney & then only you are eligible to comment anything about this sharing’s subject or any film! Yes, the subject of sharing is latest movement of the media of our country i.e., Kashmir Files as way back in 80’s there were only two categories in this movie loving country, one is those who has watched Sholay & second is those which hasn’t watched Sholay & do mind social media was not there then! Same way, today in mere ten days of its release, there seems only three categories in this country, one which are commenting about Kashmir Files from our side & second, which is commenting on their side & yes third (this lot is much more un numbers) courtesy social media, which are forwarding whatever is coming to their cell phone chat boxes! Now you will ask what is our side & their side & that means you haven’t seen yet the Kashmir Files, well, the movie speaks about hatred between Muslims (read as some Muslims) Vs Kashmiri Pandits & how this hatred ended up in killing, humiliating & then driving out the Kashmiri Pundits from their home land i.e., Kashmir!

So, when we say “our” side it is referred as we, the Hindus (read as Indians) & when we say “their” side, it means Muslims (read as Pakistanis); unfortunately, most of us ends up mixing these two things i.e., Hindus with Indians & Muslims with Pakistanis! I know even my such statement, most won’t be liking (and will tag me as, on their side) but that’s the fact! Rather on the personal front I have never believed in any caste or religion, because that’s not something in my control. I am a Brahmin because I took birth from Brahmin parents & I am sure none of us has or had any control over, in which home we got birth, right? So, why should I be ashamed or proud of a thing which is the outcome of sheer destiny & consider it as my achievement or my failure! But at the same time if someone is hurting or torturing me or my family just because I am born with some caste or religion, then that is not right thing. And exactly this is what my point is, about the movie which everyone seems to be forgetting while differentiating between us as “Ours” & “Theirs”!  I do write Hindi poem in free-style i.e., abstract form & after watching Kashmir Files I wrote something about "Hatred" i.e., Nafrat in Hindi & shared with my friends & in return received loads of comments on "Ours & Theirs" types, sharing few here just to get an idea as a society how much backward we are yet & this doesn’t mean any insult to the movie or the subject about which I will write my views in the end, please read with open mind. I am starting with the last para of my poem “Nafrat” & comments as received in cut-paste form…

 

Sanjay; “कई साल पहले एक फिल्म देखी थी उसका हीरो गाना गा रहा था, "नफरत करनेवालोके सीनेमे प्यार भर दू, मै वो परवाना हू पत्थरको मोम कर दू".. उस उम्रेमे ना तो पत्थरसे पाला पडा था और ना ही परवाने का मतलब पता था, पर उस गाने के बोल दिल मे घर कर के रह गये, आज तक...

कलभी एक फिल्म देखी, इस नफरतके बीजका असर दिखाने वाली और उसका असर भी देखा फिल्म देखनेवालोके चेहरोपर.. दोस्तो, ये नफरतवाली शंम्मा तो हर जगह दिखायी देती है अब, पर उसपर जलके उसे बुझानेवाले परवाने अब दिखायी नही देते कही...”

 

नमस्कार संजय सर. आपले "नफरत" विषयावरील विचार वाचले आणि प्रतिक्रिया लिहावीशी वाटली. प्रतिक्रिया खूप लांबलचक झाली आहे त्याबद्दल क्षमस्व. एरवी आपण या ग्रुपवर बांधकाम, पर्यावरण, वन्यजीव आदी विषयांवरील आपले लेख शेअर करता, त्यातील बरेचसे वाचले आहेत. दररोज विद्रूप होत चाललेल्या पुण्यातील स्थितीला सुधारण्यासाठी आपण लिहिलेले सुंदर लेखसुद्धा वाचले आहेत आणि आवडलेही आहेत. आपल्या कामाविषयी आदर आणि कौतुक आहे. तरीसुद्धा आपले "नफरत" विषयावरील विचार वाचून सखेद आश्चर्य वाटले.

 

मागील एक महिन्यात चित्रपट लागोपाठ प्रदर्शित झाले - पावनखिंड, झुंड आणि काश्मीर फाईल्स. यापैकी कुठला चित्रपट नफरत पैदा करतो हे आपण जरी स्पष्टपणे नाव घेऊन सांगितले नसले तरी अंदाज येतो. त्यामुळे मीही काही गोष्टी नाव घेताच लिहिणार आहे.

 

गेली अनेक दशके "भाईचारा", "भाई-भाई", "एका गालावर मारले तर दुसरा गाल पुढे करावा" वगैरे तद्दन एकतर्फी आणि बुळचट संदेशांच्या सततच्या माऱ्यामुळे अनेकांचे ब्रेन-वॉशिंग झालेले पाहिले आहे. आपले विचार चांगलेच आहेत पण ते एकतर्फी, एकाच समाजाला वारंवार सांगितले गेलेत असे मला वाटते…. (And the comment continued telling me how my views are against Hindus in the poem & that was not expected from person like me, though it is a good read, I must say!!)


Sanjay idea cell Self: Boss thanks a lot.. no i didnt meant any of movie above creates hatred but what i said is about kashmir files and it speaks about the hatred which has been created..its hindi , please reread d last lines of poem... sorry for confusion..!

 

Sanjay idea cell Self: Don’t we all think, this is what the people who has made masses puppet wants?? This doesn’t  mean whatever has happened with Kashmiri pandits or has happened with the sikhs in 1984 or with bramhins in 1948 was right , but hatred is not going to solve the problem of terrorism ever , anywhere in the world!! Need of time is the same law, more than that a system which makes the law-breaking minds afraid of the law...that’s missing everywhere why just kashmir..!! Is what i meant !!


Sanjay idea cell Self: No need to be sorry.. thanks for ur interesting read.. as a dilogue is what makes the society healthy & not guns or swords.unfortunately any dialogue needs 2 sides to accept it as a solution !!

 

: *मी हजारो हिंदू दाखवतो काश्मीर फाईल ला विरोध करणारे, मला एक मुस्लिम दाखवा काश्मीर फाईल ला सपोर्ट करणारा........हाच फरक आहे.

 

Sanjay idea cell Self: Agreed... what about solution?? 

 

: हिंदू धर्मातील रीती,रूढी,परंपरा इत्यादींवर टीका करणारे तुम्हाला *एक ढुंडो हजारो मिल जाएंगे.*

इतर धर्माच्या लोकांचा विचार केल्यास  तुम्हाला *औषधाला सुध्दा* सापडणार नाही.

 

: I agree that hate is not going to solve the problem, but let's examine who is hating whom? None of the "H" scriptures term any non-"H" as Kafirs. None of the "H" scriptures ask its followers to kill its non-believers. None of the "H" believers/followers believe or execute forceful conversions from other faiths into "H". It is only the "H" philosophy that propagates the all-inclusive thought of वसुधैव कुटुंबकम वर सर्वेपि सुखिन: सन्तु सर्वे सन्तु निरामय: And yet the ideology which follows the above thought are termed as Communal in the Secular India! It’s a great and tragic irony that the same पुरोगामी and Leftist gang which calls for women freedom, women empowerment, etc. have opposed the Hijab ban in Karnataka but not in Kerala, and we know which parties rule these 2 states. And when someone exposes them on SM, these self-styled proponents of FoE block the person. It is this behaviour of theirs which forces an impartial, truly liberal person like me to think on the religious lines.

 

: Anyways, thanks sir for all the responses. 

 

: Mind Blowing article for current situation.

India need Leader like you.

If everybody like Sanjay then no need to worry about anything and with anyone. Salute 

God bless you

 

: Kharach 

Where is the end to this hatred?

Sanjay idea cell Self: Agreed.. but problem is of finding the right solution and executing it, which no govt has guts to do, till now...!!

: Ufff

I don't know what to say.

Only this I hate them since childhood but now my conviction has become stronger.

 

: Hmm, That's true even this govt also facing issues on UCC.

 

Sanjay idea cell Self: Yes... and trust me guns will be never an end solution..i hv lived and seen worst things happening around , with every caste, religion, profession and the more u try to supress it power just like water, it finds its way from somewhere else..it’s been experienced all across the world!!  Let’s see, till then jaY Siyaraam

 

:Very well written touchy. One will have undergone this emotion some time or the other even for a couple of minutes yet it leaves behind turmoil and torture. But what hatred depicted in Kashmir Files was altogether was ghastly..heinous..words fall short!

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I don’t know what is your reaction after reading all above omments (shared just 1/10th of the total received) but what I feel is, unless & until we won’t stop mixing things such as Caste, Religion, Country, Gender or Color with right or wrong, we won’t ever be able to get read of things like hatred or communal riots! I am not saying we won’t be able to stop wars as that's an inherent part of human or any living creature’s psychology as there always will be wrong entities & we will have to fight them to stop bothering the right ones! But when we allow ourselves to be divided on the basis such as Caste, Religion or Country, then the good & bad keeps changing depending on which side of the border we are standing. For e.g., the terrorist Batti or Butt shown in the movie doesn’t even once thinks that killing Kashmiri Pundits is something bad; he is doing as he thinks he is doing good for Islam! Same is with every so called “Our” person who is upset by what he or she has seen in the movie & thinks of giving back to the Muslims & this doesn’t mean I support the killings or the tortures suffered by Kashmiri Pundits. But then I don’t support any killing or torture which everyone of us has suffered in some or other form such as in 1984 Sikhs suffered after killing of Hon Indira Gandhi & in1947 Brahmins suffered after killing of Mahatma Gandhi, over the years so called Upper Castes has making Lower Castes suffer & many innocent people are still suffering under the name of Honor Killing all across our country & most of them are “Our” people only, right?

What I mean & want to conclude with is, no religion or caste gives anybody any right to kill or make other religions or castes or a living animal suffer, just because you hold a gun & other person doesn’t & if some entity is doing so, then that’s wrong & this is why we have laws & a system to make people follow that law! If at all Kashmir File’s content has been bothering you, then first start respecting the law by yourself & make the system follow those laws, which has not happened then (& even now) & that is why a bunch of people dare to make others suffer with guns in their hands! Indeed, with such a subject & its presentation, there will be advantages seekers (disadvantages too) from its content as well as the success of the movie, but that’s what Walt Disney has said about the impact of the movies on the society, right?

My sincere thanks to Vivek Agnihotri, Pallavi Joshi & team for their courage to touch a subject which will help the society (and not just “Our” country) to understand the difference between good & bad Vs right & wrong; and I think that’s the best success of Kashmir Files, more than its box office collection figures!

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Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

 

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

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2021/09/choosing-right-home.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2021/09/blog-post_21.html


Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/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