"Vaibhav" of Indian Cricket!!

 

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“You don't need to play every ball but every ball needs your judgement.”
― Amit Ray

“Every individual has his own style, his own way of presenting himself on and off the field.”- Sachin Tendulkar

“History is never an accident, its created by hard work dedication & most importantly with self-belief.”—Me

Amit Ray, is a writer of motivational books like "Enlightenment Step by Step' & such, second name if you want introduction then better you don’t read ahead this sharing & third one is myself & that’s not quote but feelings which made me write this sharing! Well, you must have guessed sharing is about cricket & specifically about an innings I watched in IPL 2025! It was Monday, a day back I have returned from forest trip & my mood was yet down by handling the pending work which was waiting for me here & I went back to home with heavy head, & messed up mind (well, even after 25 years in business/profession whatever you call it, such days happens to you & I take that as sign of liveliness) & usually I read, rarely watch TV & after horrific performance of CSK (plz google) in IPL of late not watching much of IPL for sure! Yet just casually cheeked update & RR (again goggle) has started its batting with openers, one of which is Vaibhav Suryvanshi, a fourteen-year kid (can’t even call him boy) , is I knew & out of curiosity  I continued watching RR batting, outcome of which is this sharing!

Well, by now not just India but entire world knows about Vaibhav Suryvanshi, is a boy of 14 years (yes you read right), comes from Bihar, his parents has taken lots of suffering to make him able to play cricket, RR management especially Rahul Dravid spotted him & bought in auction at just Rs 25 lakhs (well, no more just) & is the youngest player already to play an IPL game etc etc. By now most people know this also that he has become the youngest player to hit a century in men’s T20 format not just IPL as well maximum sixes in an inning & has on his name the fastest century by an Indian batsman in IPL , more etc.! I won’t bother you with the details & there has been knocks which were played on far bigger test, 175 by Kapil Dev in world cup 83 to nearly similar by Maxwell in world cup 24, crickets history book is filled with legends & their heroics, so what made me to write about a knock which has come on  different stage & not so crucial match! The only reason is look who has hit that knock, a fourteen-year kid, do you know one such who has achieved that feat, is my reason for sharing! I ask the readers one simple question, tell me or remember your biggest achievement at the age of fourteen in any field, even studies & compare that to what Viabhav has achieved & then you will realize the importance of the knock! Guys, fourteen is what, most of us were in ninth std, so even for academics there was nothing much challenging to prove, right & look at the way he has done it at fourteen years age & in front of whom, all these matters a lot not for just himself but for millions of the kids who think they also can make it big, this knock is special because it’s by a kid next door!

Well, Sachin Tendulkar also comes from a middle-class family & started making records at the age of sixteen but sixteen is still a young boy, while Vaibhav is still a kid, yet! And the look whom he faced, right from M. Siraj, Ishant Sharma, Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sunder & Rashid Khans, all these names are representing the country on international stage while Vaibhav wasn’t even born when many of these names started their career, this is special. And he was already in news by hitting six on the first ball he faced in the IPL, again a record for a young debutant & he cried while he got out at score of 38, sign of a kid & in mere third innings he made hundred, is special! Guys, I know many people hate cricket but to get a hundred is not fluke or luck & in 35 balls, definitely not just luck but class, dedication, temperament, hard work, strength & patience, each of these terms  matters & that’s what the kid has & he displayed at big stage yesterday! IPL may be a private league or overdose of cricket but then so is La Liga or Champions Trophies in football or NBA league of basketball in the USA, our country loves cricket & IPL indeed provides what people want, so who are you & me to name it, is what I feel. It a sport, billions like to watch it & millions aspire to make career in it & just few hundred can make it to the ten teams in the league & out of that some two-digit numbers are able to carry it forward & make it bigger, so it’s not a joke to deliver even in IPL league which Vaibhav did, that’s why the knock is special!

Virat Kohli, the GOAT (plz google) in one recent interview has shared his experience about playing in first edition of IPL, nearly eighteen years back while he was of nineteen years old, & facing Ishant Sharma (interestingly, its Ishant Sharma only vs Vaibhav also) & explaining how it was like facing a totally different bowler though Virat used to play a lot with Ishant in the nets as they were from same Delhi team! This is what a tournament like IPL does to you, as here its cut throat thing is what every player knows, you don’t perform & you are made to sit in the dugout & next auction plan you have no takers means no money, no career, is the bitter truth of IPL! Indeed, every player tries to give his best here & there is no mercy, as no bowler will think while throwing a bouncer at you thinking you are a small kid, yet Vaibhav played his tone, is what makes him special!

Another most important aspect, Vaibhav comes from an average Indian family from small town who can barely make provide him basic needs of life & he has no godfather to give him second chance, the way likes of Rohan Gavaskar & Arjun Tendulkar got (sorry, but fact) as nepotism (plz google) may not help you to stay in the game for long but it definitely helps you to get one or more chances to prove what you are; which again was not in the favor of Vaibhav & best think is the kid knows it, so he grabbed the opportunity with both hands & delivered! This knock may be special in many ways in breaking records of the game but for me it's more special from the eyes of thousands of Vaibhav’s’ whom I meet everyday morning on my way to my game of badminton, sweating in the summers & shivering in the winters yet keep practicing on the grounds, with only one thought in mind that some day they will make it big & watching Vaibhav hitting sixes on international level bowlers bowling, every such boy & girl must have thought, “yes, Impossible is Nothing”, this is why Vaibhav’s knock is worth sharing & taking notice. Vaibhav is just another kid from neighborhood & if he can make it big with all his limitations (financial, social etc.) then I also can do it, this I call hope & hope is not just a word, it has biggest strength in it which makes anybody to reach wherever he or she wants to reach! Interestingly, in a recent interview Gopichand, Ex Indian badminton player & coach has warned parents about allowing their kids to choose sports as their career as competition is huge, money is less & so are the earning years! But fortunately, the scene is much better in cricket , thanks to leagues like IPL, which has not only opened avenues of money but of entry to the national team also through it, & this is via performing at such a stage matters a lot now & at age of fourteen makes it super special! Irony is, while Vaibhav was tearing apart opposition bowlers & making his debut special, one more young man was playing his first IPL in the very same match, Kareem Janat, whose first over in IPL has costed his team 30 runs, courtesy Vaibhav’s batting & poor Kareem didn’t get second over in the match & may not even get second chance to play now, this is cut throat life of IPL(read as Life), & sure Vaibhav knows it!

What is more important for Vaibhav now, is the journey ahead as success indeed is hard to earn but more harder part is to carry it & retain it as or else you just remain “One or Few Tons Wonder” & we have our very own Vinod Kambli as an example who experts says was better than Sachin but couldn’t sustain the success & the glamour which comes along with it in the sports. Here is where upbringing (Sanskar in Marathi) matters a lot & that will be test of Vaibhav’s parents actually, how he faces the glory & glamour, but for now thanks a lot Vaibhav,(which means wealth) for what you have done to this game which flows like blood in the veins of this country, go ahead make the game proud, is all I will wish for you & yes be a kid within always, it does helps!

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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/2024/12/right-home-buying-in-2025.html

https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

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www.sanjeevanideve.com / https://junglebelles.in/

End of a Smart City!!

 

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“I would rather earn 1% off 100 people’s efforts than 100% of my own efforts, that is what makes me smart.” … John D. Rockefeller

“Sometimes what looks intelligence to you is just common sense for someone smarter than you.” …  Amit Kalantri

Amit is a young Indian Magician, Management Trainer & Author, while the other person is first Billionaire of USA & probably owned half of urban USA land then, Rockefeller & similarity of their above quotes is they are referring to Smartness, a unique characteristic of livings, not just humans! Though we the humans may consider ourselves as most intelligent species which of late I always doubt about looking the way our rulers which are chosen (read as elected by us only) are behaving & this is applicable to entire world! Obviously how our country & our city (Pune, which lese) will be behind when it’s the subject of smartness, a characteristic for which most Punekars are proud of themselves, right? Ok, enough of sarcasm as a news went un -noticed in the financial turmoil causes around the globe (reason another smart ruler) & it was Smar City Mission & has been shut down as well Smart City Company (or something, what difference it makes any way) also has been closed by the Grand Mai Baap Govt (because Mai Baap Govt is our State Govt). All projects under smart city (mission I won’t use here after, space & time saving, lol) will be handed over to the respective local bodies, which are PMC & PCMC i.e. for Pune city & Pimpri Chinchwad, respectively!   

Well, most citizens wouldn’t have even read it, few who would have read it wouldn’t have understood what it means is there are some fools (like the one who is writing this piece), who read the news about closing the Smart City thing, understood it & wondered was it alive, any ways! But before coming to the news of shutting down Smart City, let's know what was it in the first place & for that I think we must define or understand the definition of the term Smart, is what I feel. Personally speaking I don’t think Smartness is a characteristic applicable to any dead or non-living objects, may it be AC, Car, or a City because by me it’s an attitude to live the life or let’s say to deal with the life, which is only possible for living things! I have seen advertisements of Smart AC or Smart Car & all they can offer you some features but on their own an AC can do things for you or a Car can’t take you to your destination with comforts which you want, not even Tesla! Now we have AI which again our Govt thinks is like Master Key to all our problems but again, all these are tools invented by some smart minds & finally it’s the users & makers combinedly decides the smartness of a product, which in our case, is a city! If you are still confused then let me explain you further, ask yourself what is your definition of smartness or say you meet many people, use many equipments every day, who you call smart as smartness is something very individual term, someone’s smartness can be someone’s foolishness or over-smartness also. So, when we generalize a subject like city smart then it’s the feature it offers to us to make our life comfortable, with minimum efforts! I hope the last few lines clarifies the smart city in a nut-shell as on that only the reading ahead has been built!

So, while deciding the smartness of a city, then in simple words that city is built by planners, run by civic bodies & lived by its citizens & combinedly how each of these performs their duties is what decides whether the city is smart or not! And let me frankly tell you if we are considering the comfort of the citizens as the scale of smartness then Pune is far above in comparison to many cities/ towns of this State & country. I know many Punekars (most) will smirk & say, what else can be expected from a builder but to praise the city (read as system/ pmc etc) so your business is promoted as well you are praising the govt so to be in their good books & I don’t blame them. One is, because most Punekars are never happy about any good thing which has happened to them & another is most Punekars (native ones) have rarely travelled & stayed for a longer period in cities in our country for any reason. And the outcome is, when it comes to comparison of the lifestyle which a city offers to its citizens then most Punkears end up comparing Pune with Dubai, Singapore, Bogota (plz google) & such. But we are forgetting, Pune is in India & we have limited resources as well, smartness is not just about some apps or metro but about the systems & the way citizens use them. If you don’t believe me then go & stay any district place or capitol of any State in India, barring Mumbai or Bengaluru & then you will realize no city not even capitals of most States don’t even come near to Pune in lifestyle comforts this city offers & Pune is not a capitol of our state, mind it!  Right from environment to roads, to water to electricity to public transport, things are much better here & this is the reason right from education institutes to IT cos’ to Auto giants to FMCG giants like Unilever, all of them preferring Pune region as their favourite destination for investment & expansion because they believe in comfort of life this region/city offers to its citizens! 

But this doesn’t mean we are perfect (rather far away from perfect) as one aspect of smartness is with whom you compare yourself & that's the weakness of Pune as we often end up considering ourselves best as others in the race are far behind in the smartness race. And that’s why it’s important to analyse what Smart City Mission has actually done for this city & unfortunately keeping all respect for the mission & people involved in it, its failure for the city & by the citizens also! If you remember, at the start of the mission some six/ seven years back (2017-18) on all the major locations of Pune’s roads there were stylish kiosks with digital displays making people feel they are in Singapore or such a city. These kiosks were to offer interaction facility to the citizens about everything related to their day to day needs & mores. For e.g. you can pay your taxes here, you can get information about city’s infrastructure, you can check your property tax & the way its calculated, you can get PMPML (local public transport) travel pass here & even its supposed to be connected to other govt agencies such as MSEDCL (MSEB) & you were to avail their services also from these kiosks & it’s been one important step in Smart City Mission, but! But, few years back scene was, these kiosks have become dump yards & even shelter for homeless & beggars & now they have been removed from the city streets, this is just one story about what happened to smart city mission in Pune. There have been many other such failure stories, right from BRTS (Plz google) to garbage collection to public toilets nothing has taken shape or come into reality. There were display boards of information about air pollution index as well there were supposed to be development of an app by which you can locate essential destinations in the city, such as petrol pump or restaurant but that app is there while no updating has been made eventually most of these initiatives already died even before shutting of Smart City Mission has been declared by the Grand Mai Baap govt, is my subject of sharing!

Ok, we all know SCM is a failure but what went wrong, is we must study or say discuss & share (I know, it’s no use, yet) if we want to avoid the next such failure, I am doing it for my own learnings, so this sharing. First & foremost SCM failed on one major aspect smartness is in knowing what we want to achieve & for that we need data & the fact is we the Indians (I am deliberately counting all of us in it) are too bad when its collection or storage of right data as we don’t respect the power of data in the first place! I said right data because if we check any person’s cell phone, its gallery is full with useless selfies & forwards & photos & clips but when it comes to even get any address or number he has to open Google, as there is data but wrong data & this is why Google beat others as its respects right data & stores in right way! Smartness starts from our cell phone storage & if we can handle our own data how we can expect our city (read as PMC & all) to do it for us, is my question to all citizens! Outcome was we neither knew the basic things like population of this city which we want to serve smartly, so how we were going to understand how much water it needs, how many busses it needs, how many public toilets we have & how many more we want to build & all such questions about the city! Today also, ask this basic question to any authority or even organizations of professionals in the city, what is the actual & floating population of the city, nobody has the right answer! And then, we don’t have how many homes are built per year while how many more we want to build, what should be sizes of these homes, their costing & yet we keep making policies related to city & real estate. We have some basic idea of numbers of vehicles in the city (thanks to registration of RTO) but we don’t have numbers of vehicles which have been registered with other cities yet are being used in Pune, & we still want to streamline our traffic, wow, smart we really are!!

If Grand Mai Baap govt really wants to make this city (or any city) Smart, then first make list of the fronts of life where citizens are needed the smartness aspect as at present right from public toilets to getting Death certificate everywhere people are stuck & things can be improved & then design a system to deal with the problem & most importantly have a periodical review system of all these things you are doing or else it’s just first step which we celebrate & then everybody forgets about the direction of the travel & eventually the mission dies its own death! At the same time, smartness is not just relying on some apps & AI, is the truth we must understand & accept, because like ACs’ & Cars’ these are just tools to ease out our life but unless we learn to use these apps & keep them updating (again data) on their own they can’t change our lives! Here comes the most important aspect in failure of SCM & that is our intent to become smart. Presently IPL (plz google) is going on & all the commentators repeatedly use this word, “intent” which means even if everything possible to win the match has been provided to you such at right pitch, infrastructure, luck is on your side to win the toss, yet the players have to show their sincere right efforts in their game to win as then only victory is achieved! Same way Smart City Mission can fetch us funds, give you authority, man-power & everything but if intent is not there to understand smartness & to implement it, then even the Gods can’t make you smart & this is applicable to every citizen of self-proclaimed smart city named Pune; mind it, adios with this warning!

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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/2024/12/right-home-buying-in-2025.html

https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.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

Think Green, Think Life

Aarti; a tribute by Jungle Belles & Foresters!

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22 Dec 76 – 10 April 25

Aarti, Queen of her Life!

“The jungle knows neither mercy nor malice”… Jim Corbett

Surprisingly the author of this quote, the great Jim Corbett also took his last breath in the very same month on 19^th of April but seventy years back, i.e. 1955. I have extensively used Jim’s quotes for many of my sharing’ about wildlife but never thought I would get to use this one for something where the above philosophy of wildlife is involved. Though Jim was a British citizen yet he was more Desi (Indian) than any of so-called today’s Dehbhaktas & one proof is, he used to mention always Jungle & not Forest in his books as well talks! The reason I have to used practical (many will feel cruel) philosophy of forests in Jim’s words is, Aarti Karve’s, one of the founders of Jungle Belles (www.junglebelles.in) & our dear friend too, demise! That way Aarti is/was my latest friend as I bumped her via Hemangi, another founder & friend of Jungle Belles, exactly just ten years (April 2015) back on Corbett trip itself, in this very month & she left also in the same month, weird connection with April, Aaarti & Corbett, rather true bond of wildlife as for me Jim Corbett has played big role in my wildlife fascination (read as madness)!

Well, that way everyday somebody takes birth & somebody pass away in everybody’s life that’s what Jungle has taught me as everything there moves around one word, survival but may be that’s difference between jungle & our so-called civilization that with knowledge & intelligence we have disconnected ourselves from reality of life & that’s why when something bad happens suddenly we take time to recover from the incidence & Aarti’s demise is one such for us! I. adhering to forest laws have never been much emotional or took pride of looking at life with practicality, a characteristic which definitely has not made me popular amongst my close ones but that’s the way it is, yet Aarti leaving this world made me sink in way which I am not used to! The whole thing of friendship with her started when Hemangi told the foresters (a group of five frds visiting forests) that this Corbett trip my very close friend has moved to India from the USA & she would like to join us on the trip, we said OK! Aaarti's native place is Satara, a town in comparison to Pune (well, I am from Vidarbha) & usually students from small towns in Pune are but shy or say has inferiority complex while dealing with Punekars (no wonder) but then not Aarti. Like a tigress whichever forest, you keep her, knows only one thing & that is, to rule, so was Aarti. And we (me) got first zalak, as when we know she is coming with us for trip, send her friend request on FB (insta wasn’t here then) & she didn’t accept it for six months & only let me through after the Corbett trip, that’s attitude, I must say! And this is why at first go outsiders used to feel is a snob but once you are in then you realize how wonderful a human being she is. Maybe she has deliberately built that Tathbandi(wall) around the fortress of herself so that any Tom, Dxxk & Harry (plz google) should not waste her time by approaching her! Post that trip needless to say, Aarti became an inherent part of Foresters & from that formed Jungle Belles with Hemangi of which I too am a little support part.

After spending eight wonderful years here in which many forest trips we did & parties & programs we attended, two years back for family reasons she again moved back to the USA though her heart was very much here. Her last trip was merely four months back & she & me share same birth week in December, we celebrated that too & she left with a promise of joining for next forest trip. As well, her invitation for celebrating her 50th Bday in USA was so strong that two of our group’s members were forced to get USA visas because of her persistence for the same, something which she was very good at i.e. to make people behave as per her wish! And then in February I come to know she has been detected with illness which we call cancer yet she was positive that she will overcome it & we also know her fighting spirit & were sure she will win this war too but 10^th April Anirudhh’s (her husband (dear friend of mine) popped from her cell number on our group, “Aarti has left for better place”, I, with my all super practicality exposure of forests was numb with the harshness of life! Why she, why so early, how can this happen to her with her fitness, how so fast, what was her fault, & many such questions, of which I know have no logic & answers, kept haunting me & that is why the quote of Jim is not for the readers but for myself! Life is forest, mercy, malice (cruelty) are terminologies which we have created to soothe our clouded minds as in reality it’s just life or death & it can be anybody’s on any day, is what forest tells us! The strongest & most beautiful deer can be prey to a tiger while the weak & ugly ones may escape from the hunter just because it wasn’t their day that day, that simple! At the same time the tiger itself can get hurt on very same day by fighting with another tiger or get injured in the hunt to such an extent that it can die because of hunger which comes due to inability to hunt, this also happens in the forest! In simple words, life is to be lived in the best possible way till you are living & Aarti lived that way & went away with that realization, though I have yet to come to terms with this philosophy! And she was a great mother & wife as well as wonderful house-lady too, this is also important as to play all the roles while you live by your rules, is not something many can achieve! 

Aarti was a great believer of living life to the fullest & that’s not something one learns as one just is born with that attitude which she was! Rarely anybody has seen her down or sad for longer time though apart from JB or forest trips there is no common circle of her yet whatever we used to exchange over WhatsApp in the group, I can easily judge as you don’t have to be a poet to admire a rainbow when you see one, so was aarti, when it’s about living the life! And she hated the idea of getting old & she used to speak about it in our parties, but I didn’t know she would live by herself to the extent that she would go away from the world without she herself or the world would see her ageing physically! I hate (and hated) sad movies where the hero of the movie dies & didn’t watch Anand as Rajesh Khanna dies because of cancer. Yet the dialogue (I do admire as I am fan of movies), “Babu Moshay, jindgi lambi nahi badi honi chahiye,” I remembered today. This dialogue I didn’t understand then as what's the difference between lambi & badi (long & large), isn’t both mean the same when applied to life! Well, living with friends like Aarti has made me understood that difference & it’s in such cruel way sometimes you get to learn practical lesson of life as if these words reach to Aarti then she must be smiling from wherever she is, & saying Sanjay Moshay, at least now you understood the difference between Lambi Jindgi & Badi Jindgi (Long Life & Large Life)! Aarti, all I can say is, you were & will be larger than the life itself always, & I won’t wish anything for you as one, you always knew way to live & second, I know there also you won’t live by other’s wish but your own; so be it our friend, I have  no grief as I know you won’t like we mourning over your departure but will be happy if we celebrate it, that will be best tribute to you, which we will always!

Sanjay, Hemangi, Saleel, Sangeeta & Shilpa i.e. Foresters.

PMRDA DP & Future of Pune region!

                                     

                                                        

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“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, vicomte de Saint-Exupéry, known simply as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, was a French writer, poet, journalist, and aviator. Saint-Exupéry trained as a commercial pilot No wonder Antoine puts importance of planning in so few words as an aero plane pilot can afford to waste time! And then no introduction is needed for the author of the first quote & I have used his above quote N numbers of the times, unfortunately our system (of late especially) is neither interested in reading nor in learning something out of it, which is the reason for using above quotes. As you must have guessed, first this sharing is not about forests (so, no tadoba) & second, the reason for sharing is news in the paper. On 2^nd April when the entire world is expecting earthquake (with all due sympathy of Myanmar/Thailand quake), I am referring to financial earthquake as USA is supposed to declares its Country First tax system for international trade, before that another earthquake happened which is though directly not financial front but on urban front of Pune region. Hon CM (who also heads PMRDA, i.e. planning authority for Pune region) announced that the draft DP (development plan) of PMRDA which was under publish or say, near finalization has been squashed, means discarded, gone, extinct!

Now, many will say what’s big deal as any way it hasn’t been under implementation i.e. yet to be approved by top authority & was under process, we will make a new DP. I am happy for all those who think it's that easy & won’t have any effect on Pune city or region & will use Jesus Christ's last words (again no offence to any community), “Forgive them as they don’t know what they are doing” (read as saying)! Because at this level if you are omitting or cancelling DP of some 6000 plus sq. km area region which is probably the fastest growing region in the entire country that too after working on it for nearly eight years then, even God won’t bless Pune! Already we have made enough of a mess of the Pune region by omitting two villages from the PMRDA DP (Fursungi & Urali Kanchan) & future of these villages (or towns) is in dilemma & now we put the entire Pune region to the same fate! If you think I am exaggerating the issue & if you want to know the reason behind it then read ahead or else go check on some idiot’s reels (sorry, frustration)! As well let me clear something, I am not any authority of govt (that’s sure or else how I can write so sarcastically) neither I am urban planner or has any separate academic training of the subject but then I am civil engg & has moved around a bit & has witnessed growth as well degeneration of this city & few others & I have some common sense left still in me (is what I believe) which is most important for urban planning, is what my opinion or say I think, which is why I am sharing this issue!

Ok, now as you are reading ahead then first understand what is a DP & then only you will realize its importance of any city, town, or region. DP is the nickname of the Development Plan which is like "Sim Sim" word for any urban growth & in simple words it defines land use of that respective region. Which means unless you make a DP you can’t decide where to build what & may it be anything, a residential building or a bridge or a school anything as all these things DP decides of a particular area or say region. Now you will know why DP is so dear and more than important to all segments of the society as in today’s world, land is new gold & DP is key to that gold as a DP decides whether your land will be gold or ash!

Here many will say, how it can be as a land is land, nobody can steal it or destroy it & I agree, nobody can steal your land but its potential or say valuation can be ruined or raise its value, with one single stroke of pen, that’s what DP can do to any piece of land! For e.g. you have a land in prime developing locality & suddenly a reservation has been put on it which is of garden, then you may get remuneration for the land as per ready reckoner (plz google for meaning) or say twice of that rate but it won't ever match with the earnings which you could have made by developing that land for any use you desired because DP says only garden can be developed on your land! At the same time lands adjoining your land have become gold mines as there is a garden adjoining to them means premium view! Now you will get a zalak (flicker) of what DP can do to lands & this is not just one aspect, your land valuation can be ruined as if on the land adjoining to you there comes reservation of Cremation ground or garbage yard or Drainage treatment Plant, in one day your lands value is gone as who will prefer to reside adjoining to a cremation Ground or H=garbage yard, right? This is what DP can do to lands & then there are roads which decides potential of TDR use on any land & the list DP can make to the land is endless! And imagine if this can happen to individual landholders what will this do to the fate of a city or a region as a city needs infrastructure & infrastructure needs planning in advance which is the main job of a DP for the city!

Now, if you have understood the role of a DP then let’s come to Pune regions & its DP as that is our subject of sharing. So, some eight years back PMRDA which is a planning authority for Pune regions has formed & that was a wise decision because Pune city & Pimpri Chinchwad (PCMC) were getting saturated & people have started looking for lands out of the boundaries of these two cities & to regulate this development PMRDA was formed. But any planning authority is incomplete without a DP in place as it's like asking a student to study without giving him syllabus for the subject, which exactly kept happening with PMRDA for years as the DP was not there & later was in making. With nearly 6000 sq. kms area under its jurisdiction, making of PMRDA DP was going to be a tough job (and controversial also) as not only about the present spread but the planners needed to think minimum 20 years ahead growth predication & needs of people also accordingly, which is the job of the DP. Here again, may it be a DP of PMRDA or of few merged villages (separate subject of sharing) the time required is a matter of concern as DP making is like treating a patient in ICU, agreed you can’t rush through yet every single minute matters but again thanks to our rulers they prefer to keep patient in ICU for not just days but years! But look at urban history of Pune & you will know, no DP has ever been completed in a fixed time span is a fact! Agreed, such jobs need time but who has calculated the right time to make a DP of the size of PMRDAs’ & who has been responsible to see that get prepared in the right way & right time span, answer is, nobody!

This exactly is the aspect I want to highlight as months, years gets passed & you don’t even bother to monitor whether DP of a region as prominent like Pune is on right track & suddenly you cancel it, what is fate of the entire region, how will it grow or sustain the people which are shifting here irrespective of your DP, have we thought about it! Funniest part is the reasons given by the govt (as per news) that the DP is cancelled because there is no point in giving permissions to the new developments as there is no road, water, drainage type basic infra in place is what govt thinks or feel (now?)! But who has stopped govt to make a DP first & then form PMRDA or first ask PMRDA to make DP & then only start functioning, is my question. You are developing MIDC, the Pune & PCMC are education & career centre of entire country, millions of people are migrating here for their better future & govt only wants them to come here but where all these people will be staying, who will give them water, where there drainage will go, where they will park their vehicles, all these question the DP is supposed to solve & now you squashed the DP itself but that is not going to stop people to come in Pune region, what about it now? Govt must now realize the importance of DP as growth is natural but development is the outcome of planning or else any growth is mere swelling i.e. unhealthy! Actually, building up a city is like nurturing a small child as with time it is going to grow but if we want the child to grow in to a healthy man then we must provide that child good food & right upbringing (we call it Sanskar in Marathi) or else the child will grow but in wrong way & most criminals are outcome of lack of right upbringing, which is job of the parents! A DP is like that right upbringing for child named city & its duty of Mai Bapp govt which is supposedly playing role of parents for the city & if they are not going to do it then no wonder the criminal part comes in which we are already witnessing all around in the form of slums & illegal buildings which is direct threat to all the legal growth or development i.e. real estate industry! At least now when the old DP is cancelled, the govt must announce an action plan for making of new DP for PMRDA & time-line to make & execute it as then only people (sane ones) will believe that govt cares for its own child named, Pune region!

After seeing all this mess over DP, has Hon Lokmanya Tilak (plz google) been alive today, who has written the famous headline editorial about the then British Govt’s actions, “Sarakrache doke thikanawar aahe ka?”, today he would have written, “Sarkarala doke tari aahe ka?”.  We miss you Lokmanya Tilak Sir, adios with this note!

--

Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

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https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2024/12/right-home-buying-in-2025.html

https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.html

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