Saturday, October 14, 2023

Story of a Dead Tree!










-

“What we are doing to the trees of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another.” Chris Maser

Chris is an author, international lecturer, consultant, and facilitator in social-environmental sustainability, he has spent over 20 years as a research scientist in natural history and ecology. He currently lives in Corvallis, Oregon, USA. And no wonder with such connection with nature he can relate human behaviour with trees (read with nature at large) & outcome we are seeing all around us. If you think this is one more cry filled sharing about how we are degrading nature & conservation then you are right & those who are bored with it they can stop reading & watch reels on Insta (lol), But those who have some interest in saving nature & feel their responsibility towards it they can (should) read ahead  as what I am sharing today is not some green gyan.com about tree cutting or green cover reduction (by heading you must have judged it)  but day to day things happening around us & what we can do about it & more than that saving or say adding beauty in our routine life with presence of a tree, even a dead one!

Well, as the heading says it’s about story of a dead tree & that too a Subabhul tree which grows anywhere in this country & to my knowledge is not even indigenous (desi) tree yet we can see it all around, though not much in our concrete jungle we are calling as our city & yes, it’s about a Coppersmith Barbet pair too, which used to be sat on this dead tree! I stay in a suburb named Erandwavnae, Patwardhan Baug which can be even considered as  central Pune also & thankfully the road runs parallel to Mutha river in front of my building & there are still a number of trees which are left here! There is a dried Subabhul tree among the green lining of the trees such as Ashoka, Amaltash, neem along the compound wall of my building & may be that’s why I never noticed this dried grey black dead tree till one morning I heard a sharp cuk cuk cuk sound in my hall. Intrigued by the voice I went outside of my hall on the attached terrace & tried to locate the origin of this sound & soon to my wonder I saw a colourful pair on a grey dead branch of this Subabhul tree which never has caught my attention but here on that tree a pair of green barbets were sitting on top & singing together. I rushed to get my camera & could click some good snaps of the barbet pair which even in forests I couldn’t have got! Reason was, the tree was dry, the barbets usually sit at the top of such a tree & my flat is on the ninth floor so I could get an aerial view of the barbet pair which in the forest is never possible & I was thrilled!

Post that morning it became a ritual to listen to the cuk cuk music usually in the early hours of morning & watch the barbet pair keep sunbathing in the morning sunlight & keeping an eye on the city around which starts its morning ritual & then flew to the shadow of greener trees! Even in afternoons the barbets used to visit this dead tree & I used to wonder what they do in the harsh noon in open & when looked closely through tele-lens of my camera, the barbet was looking for the food in the form of insects below the dried bark of the tree branches, so the dead tree was giving food also to the barbet and not just offering a place for sunbathing! And then one morning one more sound joined the barbet's cuk cuk song, a strong chirping sound it was & to my delight today a hornbill pair has joined the barbets on the dead tree! It was a wonderful sight as the tree has not a single green leaf making the barbets look like leaves on it & the grey hornbills looking like extended branches of the dead tree now! Though the hornbills were there for food but just may have found the dead tree branches as a safe and open landing place to have a look around the habitat (lol) but they too become regular visitors of the tree post that morning & barbets seems to have no objection to that!

Surprisingly grey pigeons which are a big nuisance in the cities of late & kites never came & sat on this tree which is a good thing actually, as they would have drove the barbets away for sure but there are few more visitors such as Bulbuls, Alexandrine parakeets (which most city people mistook as Parrot) & Mainas, on this tree which barbets are used to with. Post pandemic, I have observed an increase in numbers of parakeets around, reason may be anything but that’s a fact & only thing is it should not imbalance the other smaller birds like barbet & sparrows, is my concern. And when the sun goes down, I realized the dead tree becomes host to a few night birds also which my locality is lucky to have around, & they are owls & bats!  There has been spotted owlets as well barn owls which are nocturnal & bats, thanks to tree cutting around Karve road near Omkareshwar temple where there used to be a huge bat colony which get dispersed for giving away the trees for a complex (what else), all these bats have taken refuge on the trees along the road of our building! Because of my poor camera skills, I am (was) yet unable to click these night birds on the dead tree but I could watch them & more than that feel very much their presence on the tree at night!

For nearly three years (thanks to Pandemic) watching the barbets & other guests on the dead Subabhul tree had become my best of time (not time pass) till one day the cuk cuk music stopped. By now life has started a new-new normal & I too was held up in my concrete jungle routine yet I realized the cuk cuk music is not there in the morning so I went out & looked down & to my surprise (read as shock) the dead tree was no more, it was gone!  I didn’t realize it while walking from the road on the ground but from the top I could clearly see the grey black dried branches are no more there to offer sitting to the barbets & that’s the reason the cuk cuk music has stopped. That day on way to office I asked my building’s watchman, what happened to that dead tree, did it fall-down in rains, he replied, “nahi saab corporation ke loag aaye the, wo ped khatra ho gaya tha isliye tod diya” (that dead tree was dangerous so PMC people cut it down). Well, that’s it, agreed it was dead tree & its branches could have been threat to walkers from the footpath down is what some humans thought & the only logical way they had to deal with this threat is chop that tree as anyways it was a dead tree of some useless specie like Subabhul, right? Sad part is, in this world of humans, when some humans think something is dangerous then it’s for the humans & the solution is thinking safety of only the humans (is what we think) but who cares to ask what that tree was for the barbets or the hornbills or the bats, this is the reason of my sharing! We could have found some solution which would have avoided cutting of the “dangerous tree” from bottom as the tree seems pretty strong, the only threat was its branches could have fallen, so, all that was needed is trimming only the loose branches as well have some net (jali) under such tree for protection of passerby people! I know every morning the barbet pair along with its other friends like bulbuls & parakeets must be now resting on some other tree top as fortunately there are still many trees around but for me, my surrounding & mornings will never be the same without the sight of that dead tree & barbet pair sitting on it!

As usual, coming back to the core of the sharing, it’s our rampant tree cutting which is not restricted to just cities or towns but even once ever green hills in Uttarakhand also are not spared by, we the humans as recently wild lifer Mr Bittu Sahgal shared snap of town of Shimla (a popular hill-station town in Himalayas) & the tree cutting over there saying, “here is where I have been born & look what they are doing to my home town”!  I agree, we (read as humans) need space & for that trees needs to be cut but two things, why can’t we plan every structure accommodating existing trees & second, why can’t we plant big trees in every structure we build as the way we need space, the barbet pair also need their space, right? And who is going to remove dangerous human made structures which are dangerous for the barbets but just because they are small tiny birds & they can’t retaliate for we tagging their resting place as dangerous & chop it down, who gave us that right? I know, as usual I will be tagged as fanatic nature lover & I don’t care what I get tagged, I only know one thing, we must think of every single tree which is a life for many species & if we don’t do it then we have no right to call ourselves most intelligent specie but we will be tagged as most foolish specie, by that unknown power which is way above our chopping capacity!

Friends, every morning I see many of the birds taking refuge on the cables which are ample in our city’s sky traversing from one building to another & yet the birds are happy as they have something to sit on. But  ask this question to our own self, where you will like to see a bird sitting, on a branch of a tree (even dead one) or on some electric or 4G cable; because in the answer of this question lies the future of not just the birds but our next generations too & then only we will respect (and care) the dead trees also, till then god (only he can) bless the barbets & bulbuls of our city, is all I will pray!

-

Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked..

 

https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345

 

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

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2023/01/defining-good-home-real-estate-in-2023.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2023/02/blog-post.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 / https://junglebelles.in/









Monday, October 9, 2023

Chirag- Satvik & a Gold Medal of Hope!

                                                     










-

“We are simply speechless; it was a tough journey coming into this tournament. We were not playing our best, we lost in quarters of the world championship, we lost in the first round of the China Open. We could say it was probably the lowest phase for us. When we went back home, we trained even on Sundays. There was only one goal in our mind that we had to push ourselves as hard as possible during training & let the God decide what he wanted from us at the Asian Games”…  Chirag Shetty & Satwikraj Rankireddy, Badminton Men’s Doubles Gold Medalist, Asian Games 23, India.

Well, I also don’t know what God wanted from Chirag & Satwik but every Indian wanted a gold from them which they made the God to hand it over to them, is what I feel! By now  (as I started this writing this sharing on 8th Oct , last day of Asian Games 23 in China) our WhatsApp chat box must have been full of messages ( read as forwards) congratulating we the Indians for 100 plus medals tally in Asian Games, a first ever in the history of Asian games since it started in 1951 & had there been a game in the Olympics or Asian games about forwarding a message sure all three medals will go to the Indians, yet do keep reading ahead as this is not a forward & this is not about congratulations India & how proud we should be types another forward! Well, congratulations yes, but more than that the reason or say importance of these hundred plus medals & especially the Gold Medal in Men’s Badminton Doubles as I, myself am fan of the game, as well play a bit of it to the extent that got right shoulder & left knee damaged while playing this game & has been facing life time physiotherapy, if I want to play even that little which I won’t stop playing!  And that doesn’t mean all other games in which we have won the medals & even the games where we couldn’t win, are of less importance, it’s just I will share in elaborate way about the importance of a badminton gold first, for me as an individual as well for our society at large & then will share about other games.

Many readers may not be knowing, Badminton, popularly known as Game of Shuttle (as barring badminton in no other game a shuttle is used) is originated way back in Pune by British & later spread all over Europe but prominently in Eastern Asia & for decades was & is ruled by Chinese, Indonesian, Malaysian, Thai & Japanese players. My generation (those who are other side of 45 plus) grew up with names like Rudi Hertino, Icuk Sugianto, Andre viranta, Sun Jun, Dong Jiang, Lim Swe King, Han Jian, Jho Jianhua in in Singles as well Cai Yung - Fey Haifeng from men’s doubles. One look at the names in the list & you can see the origin of these champions, mainly China who has been very much dominant till last decade. Indeed, there are names like Martin Frost & our very own Prakash Padukone & Gopichand yet do mind none of them could get a gold medal in Asian Games in the last 61 years in any category & this is what makes the gold medal of Chirag & Satwik super special! Friends, with due respect those who love this game may differ but by me playing in doubles is more difficult than in singles as this is why Satwikraj’s father who himself is a badminton player & coach was not keen on making career in doubles as he thought in singles making it big depends on individual’s skill & stamina which may not be a case when it’s a team game, which doubles is! As in doubles you must play every shot keeping in mind four dimensions i.e., your partner’s position as well ability & opponent’s two players as well your own self when they return your shot & all of this in a fraction of second, such is the speed of the game. Exactly it’s this aspect of the doubles game which makes me love (and respect) the game more as it has taught me a lot while working in team in my daily work also, as I have to think in all dimensions whatever work it may be, not just mine & badminton doubles help me in practising that attitude! And this is where the far east players (Chinese) used to dominate the game, as with awe we used to watch their speed & fitness in the game for which our players were no match, but not anymore!

And this needs extreme fitness, razor sharp thinking brain & a body which will move more than speed of the mind which we call reflex & all this comes not just by skill but by hardest of training which Chirag & Satwik did to beat or say dominate their far east competitors which till now no Indian badminton player was able to do (in Asian games), this is why their medal is special! And then both of them comes from typical middle class families where making career in sports is the last option & that too in a game like badminton where your career is done by the time you reach 30’s where other’s careers starts & money is not that great but money required to play this game is surely great (read as big), this is why Chirag- Satwik’s gold medal is special & so are their respective parent’s courage as well sacrifice to make their kids chose such career! As on one side youngsters of this country are getting divided on the subject of reservation in education & jobs (I am sorry, I am not giving any judgement about reservation policy or its sentiments) & are blaming to the policies regarding the same to ruin their career & here are two boys whose caste nobody will ask (now) made their own choice of career & achieved it on the only tool or support they have with the skill they got & that is, hard-work! I think every youth in this country must follow Chirag- Satwik’s attitude; not just for the game but for whatever they want to pursue, then our many problems will be solved, this is why Chirag-Satvik’s medal is special!

And then there are other heroes’ (read as men & women, boys & girls) too, right from Nagpur’s Devtale who banged three gold medals in Archery to every that player who contested in Asian games wearing Indian Jersey, they all deserve special applauds & yes, Neeraj Chopra has already laid the path! The reason why I say this is, one, they (most of them) came from families which has no or little background in sports, two, they dared to choose sports as career which is most uncertain career considering the mindset of our society & three, they didn’t asked for any reservation or waited for it but made to the National team on their hard work & skill not by paying donation nor by reservation & nor by any political leaders reference note as all of these could have got them in the team but wouldn’t have been enough to get a medal for the country as in the tournament only one thing matters, giving your best! And this is why Asian Games 23 were so special as we won 100 plus medals & these medals are like hundreds of burning torches which will enlighten millions of youngsters & their families as yes, they also can follow this path & for that they don’t need any crutches of some policy or a god-father, this is why these medals are so special!

Last, but not least, our govt is also needed to be applauded as no longer India is being looked down as a country with just big population but slowly, we are becoming a power in every sports & not just cricket, this message has been sent to the world via Asian games medal tally & for that these medals are very very special; thanks a lot Satwik-Chirag for making millions of Indian youths dare to believe in themselves & pursue what they believe in!

--

Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...

 

https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345

 

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

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2023/01/defining-good-home-real-estate-in-2023.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2023/02/blog-post.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 / https://junglebelles.in/


Thursday, October 5, 2023

Knowing the Right Facts about the Right Home!

                                      











-

“Facts don't care about your feelings.”
 Ben Shapiro


"Never trust to general impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details & the facts."
— 
Arthur Conan Doyle 


Well, well, I am super happy for this writeup not just for the subject but the quotes rather the person of which I can use the quote (finally) for my sharing. And keeping due respect for Mr Shapiro who himself is a great thinker but it’s the other name which is like “the God” (Disclaimer: no hard feeling to any believer of any religion) for me & his creation also; yes, its Sir Arthur Conan Doyle & Sherlock Holmes, who is word-son (I invented this term) of Sir Doyle, for being able to use their quotes. Reason is, this guy, Mr Holmes is so clear about his thinking & logical while the industry like ours i.e., real estate is never known to be fond of these two characteristics so I rarely get opportunity to use his quotes but today’s topic speaks about facts & who better than Holmes can be there when its commenting about facts! Though Mr Shapiro has said facts don’t care about your feeling it’s the Sherlock Holmes who took importance of facts at new level may it be solving a crime or helping some innocent who has been tagged as guilty by the world, it’s always the facts which comes to your rescue via Mr Holmes & so they are here for me too even in choosing right home!

Another aspect is logic, as when you don’t have facts then apply logic & in the fourth episode of “Right Home” (Holmes Vs Homes, lol, sorry for PJ) one aspect of real estate which I wanted to share since long is, knowing the right facts about a home! One may say how there can be a term like right facts as isn’t the facts are just facts & you are right but, in a country, where even copper can be presented as gold just because both are yellow (which is a fact too), there is high need to make people understand difference between right facts & wrong facts while you chose your right home! Rather when you understand the “right facts” concept then you will realize most facts about a home which you are thinking of as facts are actually just some myths which we can say are wrong facts. To start with I will present you a simple analogy; many people doesn’t prefer top floor flat (in Pune) because it gets hot in summer & in Mumbai the reason is possible leakage from terrace (even in Pune) & these are facts that such problems exist, making top floor flats considered as wrong homes! But the right facts are, agreed in Pune top floor may get hotter only if proper care in planning & construction is not being taken by the developer. As if all rooms are with good cross ventilation, then air don’t get stagnant in the flat making it warm & if terrace slab has been designed as right (read as more) thickness with brick bat layers & heat reflection paint on surface along with air holes in terrace parapet to allow air flow on terrace near slab level then there is no problem of top floor flat getting hotter than the below floor flats. Same is with top floor leakage issue, if proper slopes are given to roof terrace along with right numbers of rain water draining down-take pipes in position the water won’t accumulate on roof slab which only leaks down. And post possession no damage for any reason to the roof slab should be allowed such as erecting a shade on the terrace or fixing solar panels or AC units or any such activity which will obstruct flow of rain water as well damage the waterproofing of roof slab. If you ensure this, then there is no reason to be worried about leakage of roof slab making the top floor flat completely safe as I myself live in a top floor flat of a building which we only have constructed! This is what I call about knowing the right facts about your home!

And real estate is full of such wrong facts which I call as myths & thanks to Vastushastra (no hard feelings or offence to those who believes Vastushastra) & so called experts right from having transformer (read as Agni) in some corner to having water tanks (read as Jal) in other corner of plot making it a wrong fact as this has nothing to do actually with your home use! The list is on & hundreds of things which made me use the quote of Mr Shapiro that, facts don't care about your feelings; here I will correct Mr Shapiro with due respect as it should be, "the right facts will take care of your feelings" especially when it’s about your home!  As though I am a non-believer (read as, non-blind believer) of Vastu as any shastra which is supposedly means science must be only based on hard facts & not on some individual experiences however great & nice they may be yet I believe in technical aspect of Vastu which directly deals with environment science! Yet I will keep away that aspect of facts & Vastushastra while choosing a right home as when it's a matter of faith & belief there is no point in putting forward facts, right or wrong! So, coming back to right facts aspect for a home (or office or shop) then the best way to learn or define right facts is ask right questions about the issues which you are concerned about & then analyze those answers logically & with physical proof, as a fact is something which is logical & can be proved in the physical world repeatedly as well it should not be a just one-time fluke! For e.g., another wrong fact about a home is, having anti-skid tiles in toilets/ bathrooms prevents accidently slipping fall, especially for elderly people in wet areas.  But the right fact is, if a floor of bathroom is properly given slope so as no water will accumulate on the floor as well if your wipe the surface with dry/rubber mop after using water then there is lesser chance of slipping down on such surface even the floor may be of granite which has surface as smooth as glass! And even if the floor is of anti-skid tiles which has a rough surface it can reduce (not avoid) accidently falling down only if they are kept dry because in the rough surface areas the soap water remains by forming a film on such surface & becomes more slippery! This is not a right fact because I say so, but this exercise you can try at your own home in its bathroom & then if you are satisfied with the result of floor slipperiness then it becomes a right fact!

I can keep giving hundred such examples when it's home building i.e., real estate because I myself am an engineer & second, I go by right facts whatever I build, that’s what has been taught to us! Even I too can make mistakes in the execution as most of the construction activities in the housing industry are still being done by hand yet if I follow the right facts (read as workmanship) then the chances are less to build a wrong home! And this is why one should ask as many questions to the maker of your home (read as the builder) if you are not sure about what is right facts about every such aspect, may it dimensions of rooms as one more wrong fact I always come across by the client is they feel the rooms are too small or too big but if you go by the facts of planning then you will analyze the rooms sizes as per what is needed in right way for best use of those rooms! Because small or large can change as per your feelings as well your budget but if you understand what’s use of your bedroom & what kind of furniture your lifestyle demands (and afford) & the time you will be spending in that room then you can decide right size of the room which is a fact & then all you have to do is, check the dimensions the builder is offering with your facts! Same is applicable to car park size, if you can’t imagine the drive ways or turning radius then ask him what is the size of car he has considered while creating parking space, compare it with your car (and with your future buy also) & then decide whether its the right parking space for you are not! In the nutshell what is most important while defining the right facts about your home is, not what you have read or heard or believe, it’s what has been done around, study the science & logic behind construction process as well planning of the home you are looking at & then compare it with your right facts & trust me 90 out of 100 times you won’t have to regret your decision of choosing such right facts home ever!

To conclude, I will advise only this much; a home is made up of nearly three hundred-plus items & thirty-plus trades which includes fitter to mason to tilers to plumber & all this is engineering (read as science) & everything in engineering goes only by the facts which is what makes the laws & rules of construction, this is why when you buy your home it must be built on the right facts i.e., right engineering, mind it!

--

Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...

 

https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345

 

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

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2023/01/defining-good-home-real-estate-in-2023.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2023/02/blog-post.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 / https://junglebelles.in/