Spanish Souvenirs!

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“Who’s to say what a ‘literary life’ is? As long as you are writing often, and writing well, you don’t need to be hanging-out in libraries all the time. Nightclubs are great literary research centers. So is Ibiza!” …Roman Payne.

“Cities, too, are embracing digitization. Barcelona has installed in-ground parking sensors and launched connected public transportation as part of its Smart City strategy”... John T. Chambers.

Well, I think above two quotes defines characteristics (read attitude) of the two cities of Spain, both famous for their own specialties! Yes I am writing about cities (big exception “Apale Pune”) after a long time (may be a decade) but then I haven’t visited any in the long time & happy the fast broke with these two names (three actually but third one is separate subject) as year after years visiting forests & natural reserves yet there is a small wish list for me to visit few places & if Ibiza was surely not in it Barcelona was long pending! Right from the days when I first came across terminologies like Urban Planning, Public Transport, Civic Infra the name Barcelona was included in the To Visit List & finally it took my forester friends group only to make my wish list become a reality. So in a way its forest only which made me travel to the place named Spain & made me realize there is so much to learn & adopt & so little I have done! Well, Spain is one of the largest & most historic countries in Europe though not as advanced or rich destinations like Germany, England or France, neither it carries glamorous heritages the places like Budapest, Rome or Prague has & certainly it’s not as scenic as Austria or Salzburg or Swiss Alps but then I will say is it has dash of every above thing making it wonderful destination to visit! We the Indians are funny lot, we often visit places going by what people speaks about them or what’s been shown in our Bollywood movies & after the popular movie Jindgi Na Mile Dobara, in which three bachelors travels across the Spain countryside for celebrating pre marriage freedom of one of friend, a journey which starts as fun, ends up with soul searching for each of them; suddenly Indians came to know there is  place named Spain which they should visit as it has much more to explore than Bull Fights & yes there is a festival also where people throws Tomatoes on each other!

Well, Spain is lot more than that actually & as the first quote by Pyene, who wrote one of the best books on travels i.e. “Cities & Countries”, let’s talk about Ibiza! When our forester groups decided about visiting Spain & three destinations, Ibiza, Barcelona & Valencia, I knew very little about Ibiza, just that it’s an island & famous for beaches! Well, when I told my sons that I am going to Spain & Ibiza, their faces turned purple! As then I came to know Ibiza if world’s Goa actually so you can imagine my sons’ excitement about their forest loving father visiting Ibiza! As I said Ibiza is an island with green hills covered in rolling mists & clouds & beaches covering most of the periphery! While starting for Spain we have been told that this will be good season & lots of sun & warmth but as the flight approached Ibiza, it was all cloudy & raining heavily & I thought gone is our sight-seeing with such weather to welcome but then that’s what I knew little about Spain & her weather mood changes! The airport of Ibiza was in a way show case of what it hold behind i.e. everything in bright colors & lots of bikini wear shops along with cocktail serving joints right outside the gate of flight! More to my astonishments most of the cabbies were women & do mind language is a big problem in Spain. Yet when asked about clouds & rains our driver smilingly said tomorrow it will be sunny & clear sky! I looked outside of window & dark clouds & wished I could have such trust in our weather forecast (well it’s much better now sure). The cab pulled along our hotels porch & we were welcomed by opening of chilled champagne bottle by the lobby manager, well this is what Ibiza is, I said to myself!

And next day morning when I woke up for walk (that’s best thing you can do at any new place, a long walk) it indeed was sunny & clear blue sky outside & I realized this is western culture, they do what they say & or they flatly refuse! And then next three days exploring Ibiza by every possible mean on feet, local bus & taxi sometimes; we were located near to old city which is spread around an old castle or church. I am deliberately not putting names to the churches or streets or castles as one sitting in your home or office it hardly makes any difference & second & really don’t remember as all are Casa D Something or Saint D Something type names which sounds all same for me! Ibiza being an island has many water boats for transportation as water ways are major part of the same. We took a ferry to old town from a jetty right in back yard of our hotel & trust me every my planning book funda I saw melting down in very first sight of Ibiza. As right along the shore there are lots of buildings even new also. And then the old city which is a huge conglomerate of shops, cafes, bars, & residences around the castle cum church! I have been told Europe is costly affair for shopping but frankly that’s relative term & I personally found Spain much at par to our country as the country is not in much good shape on financial front & if the tourists don’t spend on shopping pr eating, how you are going to make revenue & if you want tourists to shop you need to keep food & goods in their budget is simple funda which they are wise enough to understand & adopt! And Ibiza has full of all such shopping places right from hand made goods to souvenirs to branded items to lure tourists & when tourists are done with shopping well, there are beaches, sand, cocktails & paella i.e. Spanish cuisine made of rice with vegetables or meat or fish, to make them relax! The best part of Ibiza apart from beaches, yachts & shopping is the old town around the central castle/church; walking through those narrow cobble stone paved lanes I was living like some English novel chapter as people sitting on chairs on pavements, people walking on streets, people shopping, people drinking wine, people clicking selfies, people with their pet dogs & bright sun with blue sky, I realized this is Europe! Even the sea side promenades is worth studying, in-front of my eyes images of sea side walk near Hotel Taj in Mumbai came & I was thinking how great that site can be made if worked on these lines, alas only if had it been Ibiza!

Well, what we earn from places like Ibiza as have we not our very own Goa to match its vibrancy, is what many will ask! Let me tell you, it’s the difference of scale & variety of presenting everything is what we should learn. Though the season at Ibiza was yet to start so we couldn’t actually experience night life or the party type mahaaol yet even what was on show, was enough to give the idea of what Ibiza offers to its patrons! Apart from party night & shopping, Ibiza is center for art & culture for Spain with hundreds of studios, art galleries & art schools giving opportunity to thousands of youngsters to take route of art, which is dearly missing from our once art rich country!  I took back colors from Ibiza & lots of them as well the way you use these colors in everything you create!

And then if Ibiza is happening, vibrant typical tourist heaven then Barcelona is all time awake, buzzing, celebrating life yet very businesslike city where old meets new with grace! And when the name Barcelona pops up then first thing comes to mind of most (well football lovers I meant) is FC Barca i.e. the world’s one of the most decorated football club’s home town! One can’t say he or she visited Barcelona if the trip doesn’t includes the tour of the FC Barca stadium again not just a sports ground but an engineering marvel in itself!  I am not great follower of football but I like any game especially ground game & no two minds this game has great energy in it! And with names like Messy, Suarez, Nyemar & Innista playing here no wonder from all over the world tourists come to visit FC Barca which is smart enough to en-cash this fan following. The audio visual tour of the club ends in a three storied shopping store which sells everything from tee-shirts to key-chains with FC Barca on it! We the Indian’s love cricket shade more than the Europeans loves football & why cant in place like Mumbai we make something like this at Wankhde Stadium or at Eden Gardens in Kolkata where histories have been wrote & legends like Gawaskar, Tendulkar, Kapil Dev, Dhoni or Kohali has mesmerized one twenty crore Indians with their game for years after years! It’s not commercialization of the game which many can say but its conserving heritage of the sport which has kept this country united is a fact! FC Barca is a tribute to every sport & sportsman who has given something to the game is what they say!

And apart from FC Barca the city is one of the best planned smart city with wonderful public transport system where eight lines of Metro serves you twenty four hours in tune with bus system. Do mind, Spaniards doesn’t like English much yet even once in four days we needed to use taxi for our commuting such is the system of public transport. Once you buy a 48 hour ticket then you can hop in or hop off on any public transport line of the city any numbers of time with an app in you cell phone which guides you towards nearest bus stop or Metro station to your destination from your location & timings of the bus or train too! Well, that’s why even the millionaires of the city you can see riding Metro or Bus here as its time saving & comfortable! And unlike London or Moscow, the Metro here is fairly young i.e. recently developed leaving us no space to face-off saying “oh these cities has it since long back that’s why it’s possible or easy for them”!

Just like FC Barca one more name rules the city & that is legendary architect Antonio Gaudi, whose forms & structures gave new dimension to the construction industry! His buildings are now in a way monument & his residence has been developed in one of the best conserved structure. No wonder even his incomplete building i.e. Sagrada Familia Cathedral also has become most visited place of the city for the tourists. Now, this I say is being great where the jobs you left incomplete also becomes memorial! On this background I remembered images (read condition) of so many so called heritage structures in our Smart City Pune; do I need to mention names! It’s the people (citizens) in the city which makes the city, indeed really true & if they have Gaudi then more applauds for the citizens of Barcelona that they acknowledged his greatness & conserved that & marketing it perfectly, who has stopped us doing that here in Pune? One more thing you notice in Barcelona & that is public places & lots of them where plantation has been done to conserve biodiversity & yes in Pune we have many but these gardens are actually forests in Barcelona with grass, shrubs, mid level trees & big tress all growing together in harmony making it a complete life cycle! And yes do visit Rambla Street, one of the world’s most loved shopping market where you will be zapped by the sheer verity of eating stuff which is displayed in such a way that you must be Saint if you comes back without buying anything & needless to say with millions of people visiting every day no shouts, no garbage or no horns of vehicles!

What I found most interesting about Barcelona is the way it lives life even being a business center i.e. on Sunday evening in a full summer tourist season every brand’s fancy shop on Passeig de Gracia i.e. main shopping road of the city, was closed as Spanish people loves their holiday & probably life is something more than making money for them! Call it arrogance or foolishness but by me they have understood the purpose of living & that’s why I saw a café or bar in every block of buildings & every such bar was in operating means the owners must be making some money sure! I think when we visit places like Spain, agreed the Euro vs. Rupee scale refrains us from shopping much ( for most visitors) but as usual we took back some magnets or key-chains & yes selifies as our souvenirs but real souvenirs is the learning which we must take back about understanding the way we should live as a society as well as an individual, which we conveniently leave behind like excess baggage & start behaving as a perfect Punekar the moment we hit the roads by spitting on road or jumping red signal or refusing to wear helmet & we feel we are a Smart City!

To conclude, there is a poster hanging at the end of the tour of FC Barca Club, it says “If you can’t support us when we lose then don’t cheer for us when we win”! That’s the attitude mate… mind it!

Explore some more moments at link along...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157705029282962

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Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

https://youtu.be/g3lx1Nq7pBs

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

http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2018/08/pune-city-no-1.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/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

Vote For, Your Self! !!

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“Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.” … Abraham Lincoln.

“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”… Winston S. Churchill.

Well, do I need to introduce above two names probably most famous leaders of two countries which are known to have best of the democracies’ in the world’s  history & look at the way they have put their views about the voters in words, actually knowing about the attitude one will think the quotes have been changed as Lincoln who was always known for his soft nature & accommodating attitude has expressed his opinion about voters in a fashion which doesn’t go with his reputation whereas, the usual head strong Churchill is saying exactly opposite of his nature i.e. having a dialogue with voters! And that shows how an election can make best of the leaders change their perception regarding the voters (read citizens) & I think that’s real beauty of the democracy as its this time when the rulers realize it’s no more just a common man or citizen he is The Voter which is like The Terminator for next few days i.e. from announcement of election day to voting i.e. “D day”!  Well there are few hitches during this time span such as getting party’s ticket (read most sought after party, whichever is in ruling) to silencing most troublesome candidates (please read as making such candidate withdraw his or her from contesting) etc.  And the reason I recalled these quotes is the D day for largest democracy in the world has finally come i.e. Loksabha Chunaw (feel lot better this way than Assembly Election type terminology) are here. It’s a show which entertains entire India more than any Bollywood block-buster or IPL as before announcement of actual day to results of the voting, nearly two & half month entire country is busy in the process. And everybody for his or her own reasons to be exited because of elections; political parties off-course for their next five years future is depending on it, bureaucracy is interested as to decide which side to switch as well responsibilities for the execution of election process, everybody has got their all senses focused only at one thing i.e. elections! And then there are vendors, suppliers of various services right from transportation to sound system to banners/ flags/posters makers to designers to speech writers to social media handlers (most sought after, now a days) & yes Biryaniwalas for karyakartas (read caterers) all such tradesmen whose turnover suddenly gets multiplied in the year of election, so they too are eagerly looking at elections! Well I may not mention but even a small kid who doesn’t has voting right also knows what more is traded during elections!

So, now you can imagine if for 542 people (loksabha count) it’s the fight for ruling the country then for millions it’s the business opportunity coming once in five years & everyone wants to make full bounty of it! Well, this is for all those who are looking at elections as an opportunity considering general elections as a market but what about the ones who are clients for this market but actually are being used as product, yes I am referring to the voters! Just few days back I had a dialogue about voting pattern as well campaigning with one of my friend whose close family member is contesting loksabha election & against some giant name in politics! As well go to any nukkad or cafe or take any group, the current topic is obviously the elections & everyone has his or her own opinion about the candidate or the political party & their agenda! Then I met many who are least interested in elections because the New India’s famous dialogue is “yaha kuchh nahi honewala” i.e. nothing is going to change here which in nut shell means whichever party or candidate gets elected still for me there will be no change in circumstances (read difficulties of the life)! But the by saying so we ourselves are becoming the biggest enemy of our own self as when I ask myself why I should vote then do mind it’s not for some party or candidate I am voting but I vote because its sign of my very existence, is what I think!

It’s a shame that a country where everyone has his or her freedom to express opinion about everything i.e. right from Indian Cricket Team selection to International Politics we express our self without having even any say on it & yet when it’s time to make real difference by casting our vote then we stand back saying “yaha kuch nahi honewala”; real hippocratic lot we are & mainly the educated ones! As the poor votes by lot as they feel that their vote can get them something & take it as bargain & nothing wrong in it as you vote to someone who you feel (or think) will represent you to solve your daily problems & it’s always the poor who has got more problems & the first & foremost of it is day to day survival! So, no wonder the slums comes out for voting with numbers & you may name that their votes are purchased but who is responsible for the situation where a poor guy is ready to sale his or her vote, has someone asked this question ever, even to self! Its, we the educated ones who don’t vote are the main reason for creating a situation where poor people’s vote can be purchased by small things like Rs 500 note or some ceiling fan or set of clothes is a bitter fact we refuse to accept! 

And speaking about the voter’s pattern there always will be supporters which majorly go by some political party & their agendas (which is same actually with any party) & yes in this country saddest part is many voters still vote by looking at caste or religion of the candidate & even the political parties also chose their candidates keeping this aspect in mind! Now tell me on one side we are taking pride in calling ourselves a secular democracy & other side every party looks at the caste equations when its voting pattern, are we not making fool of ourselves! This again happens because the so called educated people don’t vote & when I say educated then it means those who have gained not just some degree but gained knowledge to analyze difference between good & bad, right or wrong! By not deciding to vote or even by voting with caste & religion like aspects in mind even we have got a degree I will say we are illiterate & a worst lot than the poor living in slums & fighting for their daily needs like water , food, shelter & cloths! If you see the voting pattern the average voting of the country is just around 60% & this is divided in majorly between some three or four parties! Means when a party comes in ruling this country just represents some one fourth of the citizens, isn’t it weird! And then when such ruling party doesn’t stand to your expectations you say, “bola tha, yaha kuch nahi hoga!” But again you not going for voting is the reason for making some bunch of people rule the entire country when they have got just a quarter of entire voter’s support actually; is again you are conveniently forgetting!

Actually when people vote, there are those who vote for the party, then there are those who votes for the person contesting (for reasons like he or she is my relation or from my caste types) & then there are ones who votes for personal gains they have been offered (read vote purchasing) & these all people makes some eighty odd percent of actual voters. But there are some twenty percent of the voters who till they go to vote are unable or hasn’t been sure to decide whom they should vote & why! I told to my friend, it’s this twenty percent lot is the one which makes the difference in making any candidate win & its this lot on which any candidate or party should focus on. As well another big lot is the one who don’t come out for voting at all; if we really want to make the change then its these two categories we must focus on, is what I shared with him!

I used to wonder (pity) for our country where we have to appeal people to vote but then that’s why I said I used to wonder but no more; as the country where people still need a law to wear a helmet for their own safety, a country where party’s ticket is given on which caste the candidate comes from, a country where national holiday is needed to be declared so people can go for voting, a country where  election commission has to interfere on everything right from candidates information to expenses made by the candidates, a country where people has to walk miles even to go to polling booth; what else can be expected here! And yes just by voting you don’t earn that right is equally true as next five years it’s your job only to see that your vote doesn’t go waste just like if you have paid some amount for servicing of your PC or AC then you see that it remained in working condition, same way if you have voted someone then it’s your duty that make your vote count & this duty is for five years! Even if the candidate you have voted doesn’t get elected then also do mind it’s a democracy & the elected candidate is of entire constituency & not just for those who has voted him or her! This also is your job to make that candidate remind this truth about the power of your vote! And this is why I go to vote & even then if nothing changes then at least I have gained my right to say, “yaha kuch nahi hoga” which won’t be actually required then, as if everybody votes to someone & make that someone count for his or her vote then only “yaha kuch to hoga” is a fact!

With heavy heart I confess due to my preplanned trip I won’t be in town for voting though I am trying for voting by mail or other sources but at least if I can make few sleeping souls to vote by my sharing will balance my sin of not being able to vote, is the sole reason for this sharing!

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Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

https://youtu.be/g3lx1Nq7pBs

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

http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2018/08/pune-city-no-1.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/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

Spiders, Lizards, Termites & Wild Life!

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“The difference between utility and utility plus beauty is the difference between telephone wires and the spider web”… Edwin Way Teale.

Edwin Way Teale was an American naturalist, photographer and writer. Teale's works serve as primary source material documenting environmental conditions across North America from 1930 - 1980. He is perhaps best known for his series The American Seasons, four books documenting over 75,000 miles (121,000 km) of automobile travel across North America following the changing seasons. And no wonder with such closeness with nature Teale can differentiate a telephone wire & spider web so wonderfully! Just look at the work Teale has put in to make mankind rich on the front of not just knowledge but making them aware about importance of thousands of species which we have not very (read at all) bothered about species like spiders, frogs, lizards & many such! And Teale did it by his sheer dedication towards nature in totality by spending over fifty years rather actually living with all such species, not something one can even imagine! As I always wonder about the so called recent Face book wild lifers who goes to forests with fancy gears with all protection like sun cream, outfit, glares, stays at best of the resorts & yes cameras with zoom lenses & click snaps (mostly of tiger) & after coming back post them on social media & discuss sightings & what thrill it was types things over chilled beer at some bar with their friends! Can any of such lot survive even twenty four hours if put in a real forest or nature is what I always think & then you realize hard work & dedication people like Teale has put in & that’s why they are real wild lifers or say wild life conservationist. And then when it comes to wild life, all our love, passion, awareness etc stops at four or five animals, tiger is at apex of it. If you don’t believe me check wild life groups on FB, who calls themselves wild lifers & see the numbers of photographs of tigers & like such snaps gets & rest all photographs of insects or smaller species & the likes as well comments they gets! Especially if the photograph is of some lizard or a spider or a frog or any such species which is equally a part or form of wild life as tiger is then barring few no one even bothers to comment or ask about details of such specie! Well I don’t judge something (read importance of wild life) from the “likes” but just pointing out the trend as the likes definitely shows what masses cares about or say runs behind is proper term!

Last year I had been to Panna forest & it’s mainly famous for leopards & we also were not exception as a leopard is rarer than tiger because of its hide & seek way of living. On one safari our guide RP More, who is very enthusiastic about entire wild life (again a rare species by himself with such attitude) asked to stop suddenly gypsy & excitedly pointed at something. As usual we thought tiger or leopard & aimed our cameras towards the direction he was pointing but we couldn’t even see what he was trying to show in first place! He said it’s a “Tree shrew”, a small euarchontoglire mammal, native to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. It was hardly of size of mouse & even looks alike but Omre was so excited, he said he hasn’t seen a Tree shrew in last five years & never in day time in forest. We clicked enough snaps of it & pretty clear ones; More than next 30 minutes kept telling us about Tree shrew & its life style & how rare its sighting is etc etc. Frankly I came to know about Tree shrew for the first time but I also felt great & a day before that at nigh safari we have seen Civets; a civet is a small, lithe-bodied, mostly nocturnal mammal native to tropical Asia and Africa, especially the tropical forests. The term civet applies to over a dozen different mammal species. Most of the species diversity is found in Southeast Asia. Again till we actually saw civet we didn’t realized how difficult sightings of such animals is in forest as all we know about forest is tiger, leopards & slot bear at the most! Well, after coming back home I posted snaps of tigers, leopards & Tree shrew on FB, needless to say to my expectation not a single comment was about Tree shrew, nobody even bothered to ask what’s so special about it & where it found or any information about its food & such things! At the same time I have got snaps of tigress drinking water as well few of leopards & those snaps got loads of likes! I repeat I am sharing this only to tell you how even the so called wild lifers also are unaware or non-interested in animals apart from Big 5 i.e. Tigers, leopards, sloth bear, bison & at the most barsingha types or sometimes wild dogs gets some attention! And the story with many animals like Porcupine or Ud Manjar (Ant Eater) Or Lizards or Snakes (King Cobra is exception again) is not different as all such species exists but not many cares about their existence is a bitter fact! Seems most people either knows all the things about such animals (just sarcastic) or don’t bother about it as for us jungle is tiger. As most of the people who has gone to jungle has seen tiger & it indeed is great sight (I too agree) but you can like the snap of animal which you have seen many times but you don’t even look at the snap of an animal who you haven’t ever seen even after visiting its habitat (I am not asking to like something from rain forests of Brazil) but you are not interested; and you still call yourself a wild lifer?

And why just social media even the print media is hell bend of just saving tiger or covering tiger related things & I am referring to news-papers who are face of the society in a way! On this background when you get to read news about some new species of spider & lizard has been found by two researchers in Maharashtra & on top of it the species has been named after a forest officer, its real heartwarming thing! Because first not many youngsters take such field as their career & thing is simple there isn’t enough money which is first mark of success in our culture & then there is no fame! As well being a researcher in something like lizards or spiders needs to you get away from normal urban world i.e. giving up all the luxuries like nice clothes & social life & yes even the mobile net work a times! And then the researcher has to spend hours, days, months even years in adverse conditions as wilderness is fun as a tourist but can be ruthless when it’s your home! Because the very same greens can be suddenly boring & frustrating when it surrounds you all the times with extreme cold or hot or rainy weather! Yet there are few who chose forest as their career & the two names in the news are of Mr. Rajesh Sanap & Dr Varad Giri & Rajesh has found a new specie of spider in Aare Colony i.e. right in Mumbai, Borivali National Park which very few people know a home for many such non glamorous yet wild species! And he aptly named it by the name of Mr. Sunil Limaye, IFS who has been Director at Borivali National Park & has been himself avid wild lifer & does his forest duty not because he gets paid for it but because he loves forests!

And this is the reason I am happy to read the news about spider & lizard because still there is hope for wild life in totality. As when you say forest what you mean or what comes in your mind, is I will like to ask? Most people will say, trees, lots of trees actually, grass, deer, river, leopard & yes tiger; indeed most people’s answer will be this & I don’t blame them! As the problem is right from our school days nobody has  made us understood what actually forest means, all what we have been taught is text books is full of words while forest is something one needs to feel by being in it! As when you will realize forest is much more than the items in above list for e.g. forest is creepers hanging from trees, forest is various sounds surrounding you right from birds chirping to alarm calls to cicadas constant noise & even wind whistling through bamboos,  forest is not just green leafs on trees but fallen leafs which gets rotten on the earth beneath our feet, forest is spider webs hanging across the less travelled tracks & insects caught in them, forest is Baami i.e. termite houses & rodents digging through them, forest is honey bees collecting honey from wild flowers & hanging beehives on tall banyan trees, forest is butterflies dancing on wild flowers! All these & many such makes a forest complete life cycle of which every link is equally important & this is what we need to make people understand if we want to make forests survive. As no link of the forest is less or more important than other; if we want to make tiger or leopard survive then we need its prey i.e. deer, monkeys & wild boars to survive as well water bodies & the habitat in which tiger lives also to survive. To make deer survive we need grass lands as well lots of shrubs to survive, if we need monkeys to survive we need to make fruit as well flowering trees survive, if we want wild boars to survive we need to make termite houses as well roots of grass & many such rotten things to survive. We want to make grass land survive with the help of many insects like termites to make the soil fertile with minerals. If we want to make fruit & flowering tress then we need insects & butterflies & birds to survive so as pollination will happen! If you want water bodies & birds to survive you need to make fish & frogs like species to survive & the list of things to survive goes on & on!

Finally let’s understand every specie, tree, grass, water, air, sky all these combine makes the thing we call forest & these all are connected to each other; the only thing which is not connected to above all is, us the humans & that’s main reason of destruction of forests! And that’s why news of some Rajesh or some Dr Varad Giri finding a new species of spider & naming after some forest office Sunil Limaye is very much important as these are the people who has understood what forest means & so has the guide of Panna, RP More who cares for a Tree shrew as much he cares for tiger! Friends, years after year, sometimes with ignorance & most of the time with our greed, we have killed forest named life cycle which exists right in our backyards also in the form of a small water body or patch of shrubs or a big neem tree! Still all is not lost, let’s understand forests & make them survive, as today we only can help forests & make them survive but once forests are gone, who will help to make us survive, is the question written on the wall ahead!

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Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

https://youtu.be/g3lx1Nq7pBs

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

http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2018/08/pune-city-no-1.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/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..

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Think Green, Think Life

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