Panna, Language of Wilderness!

“A great whispering noise began to rise in the woods on either side of the tracks, as if the forest had just noticed we were there and was commenting on it.”… Stephen King.

Stephen Edwin King is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, science fiction, and fantasy. His books have sold more than 350 million copies, many of which have been adapted into feature films, miniseries, television series, and comic books. Well, I too am a fan of King & his thrillers & though his above quote is from one such thriller The Body which doesn’t dealt with forests yet his these lines I have lived many times & my recent trip to Panna forest in MP wasn’t exception!

It was freezing winter morning & sun has just to break through the horizon when we entered at our first safari in Panna. Let me tell frankly I hate to be in MP forests in winters (with all due respect to my love for wilderness) as I don’t like cold & it’s very cold at this time in forests there! As well tiger sighting was not something Panna is famous for yet & though we don’t visit forests for tigers yet who doesn’t like bonus? And when within ten minutes we came across a tracking vehicle as Panna's half population of the tigers is collared, we just followed it for some distance & then our guide RP Omre decided to depend on nature's tracking i.e. alarm calls! Leaving all the vehicles we took another route way round & in few minutes we heard monkeys & spotted dear alarm calls & were sure about presence of tiger yet couldn’t believed our luck when three beautiful tigress (mother & 2 her sub adult female cubs) walked in one by one from the nearby grass & gave us ramp walk, drinking water on way before vanishing again in thickset around, leaving behind alarm calls & mesmerized faces of us i.e. foresters! Here is first set of the captured moments! The trip has started with a bang for the foresters (group of few like minded friends sharing same affection for forest)!!

Actually I hate winters of MP forests & especially Panna types where huge water bodies are present & Panna has been blessed with Ken River which flows right through middle of the park for most part of it. Yet Panna was long on my agenda to visit, for two reasons, one Ken River (karnavati) is known to be one of the cleanest rivers of our country & hilly terrain of Panna forest makes it best for leopards is what I have heard. Also my wild lifer friend has told me so much about biodiversity of Pnana that my curiosity bar has already raised pretty high making me able to overcome my hatred (sorry couldn’t find suitable word) against winter! Though Panna is one of the oldest district in MP & known to most of us by our Geography book reference regarding diamond mines, which are still there, right adjoing the park but no more that productive. Off late Panna has been in news, first for tigers absolution due to poaching of-course & then in 2009 MP forest dept took rejuvenization of tigers in the park. From Kanha & Bandhaavgarh pairs of tigers has been brought in & successfully relocated, so the park boasts now nearly thirty five plus tigers plus sub adult cubs & again regaining flow of wild life lovers. Though Panna forest has lot more to offer than just tigers & some eleven tigers have been collared to monitor them. A team of forest officials along with Wild Life Institute people monitors twenty four X seven ever collared tiger & let me tell you, it’s not easy job. As during our rounds in forest we came across many a times the tracking vehicle i.e. an antenna van with a tracking devise which give signals as per the location of the collared tigers & according to strong beep on the screen the tiger can be located to nearly in hundred meters radius. So, many tourist gypsy’s follows these tracking vehicles, in hope of tiger’s sighting but then nature is above any science as in a forest like Panna, even if a tiger is hardly few feet from you, yet it takes luck to sight the same & that’s real charm of tiger sighting!

Let’s not go in to the forest aq km area, trees, terrain & those type of things as that information is available on many websites, yet just in brief the Panna National park is some 650 sq km area means nearly 1.5 times of our Pune City (just to give idea of spread) but the figures won’t make you visualize the spread as this is just reserved park. Actually Panna is gifted with probably largest buffer area around the reserved forest because while I was travelling to & fro, from Panna, I realized there is no big town or factory or any such development within hundreds of kilometers of Panna forest. This is what makes Panna jewel of all the forest as it has capacity to absorb any numbers of tigers provided we acknowledge its potential. Though this detachment from the any so called development is curse also for Panna forest as this vast spread really makes it difficult to manage the tiger’s movement in & out of the park & which may be the reason why Panna tigers got disappeared in first place a decade back! As first the tigers does like to expand their territory & when they have vast land to explore they must have got out of park & second is with such a big forest around the main park, the entry of poachers really must be very easy & so must have been exit, after killing the tiger. And with no monitoring system in place, like the one right now, it must have been cake walk for the tigers, is what my logic is! Here is where tourism makes difference in tiger as well forest conservation, as it were tourists who realized that no tigers are being sighted in Panna & that’s how the entire system got woke-up & the full credits to forest department’s efforts to relocate specie like tiger & conserve it. As when we say tiger then it’s not just one specie but entire chain around it & that’s why a forest with tiger in it is a healthy forest as it has a complete life cycle within. But looking at the vast buffer spread around Panna forest I was really happy as it’s this forest we can use to accommodate the new tiger population provided the govt (read even Central Govt) supports MP Govt with funds to retain this buffer forest land & use it for building tiger’s habitat. The main hurdle is villages in this spread of buffer forests of Panna & the time it will take to shift these villages. Because till that time the man animal conflict will continue & outcome we all know death or defeat of the animals like tiger. A leopard is smart, it survives even keeping itself around the human habitat but tiger as being fearless walks & kills openly making it easy enemy for the humans!

Speaking about tigers & leopards, it was my one wish from forest to click a tiger with its reflection in water full frame & so many if’s are needed to come together for that i.e. sighting tiger in first place, near water body, the water should be still & the light & then tiger should look towards reflection & I can get clear steady shot! Well, forest always fulfils your wish, just bit patience & some luck! And Panna fulfilled, my wish with a beautiful tigress giving me the shot what I wanted with her reflection in water.

Another was getting a clear shot of leopard, as I have seen leopards but never was able to get a clear frame shot of it. Panna trips, I was looking forward to meet leopard as the hilly terrain makes Panna a perfect habitat for the Ghost i.e. nick name of leopard in forests, just for its ability to vanish on the background of dry leafs & yellow grays of forest. At one morning safari we were having a stop at center point (spots in the forest created for rest rooms as well to take a tea break) & suddenly alarm call rang from down of a hill. We had a hunch as our guide has said that is territory of a female leopard & she has been seen in last few days along with her cubs regularly. So keeping our hot tea cups (a boon in bitter cold) away we rushed in gypsy & it started rolling towards the area from where alarm calls of spotted dears were coming. And just after a turn we saw a gypsy ahead & a female leopard walking on road in front of it. What happened next was an act of great gesture; the gypsy ahead gave us the way so we can click the snaps of the leopard as the tourists in that gypsy weren’t carrying any cameras! Those who are regular forest visitors can understand importance of this gesture as where most guides, tourists won’t move away from such sight here these people were giving us way to take clear shots! Such things makes forest trips more memorable & make you realize yes this is spirit of wilderness! Well, just following the spirit of gypsy ahead the leopard also got down from the track & came parallel to our gypsy & we could clearly see entire front & side profile of the gorgeous animal & with the ease it walked, ultimate grace! While looking at the camera I realized why Leopard is called as Ghost as it was so difficult to focus on the leopard because of the spots it carries & perfectly getting camouflaged in that dry forest background. The entire drama must have lasted for ten minutes & she vanished in the depth of forest but yet forest has helped me to tick one more wish in my list! 

And yes the highlight of the trip was sighting & clicking of a tiny animal Tree Shrew, endangered actually. While we were waiting for alarm calls our guide RP Omre sighted (and salute to him for being able to locate this size animal from a moving gypsy) this rarest animal which is size of a mouse but beautiful & is from the family of rodent. It's animals like Tree Shrew which makes a forest real rich in biodiversity but unfortunate that most tourists, even guides doesn’t understand their importance & neglects it. The forest as well tourism dept should made Tree Shrew like animals as forest ambassadors as there lies the success of awareness campaign of save forests like themes! Jan 18

Best part of Panna forest is the ken river & the stretch it flows through the entire park & forest dept has made provision for boat ride also. In summer if you are lucky you can even sight tiger or leopard also drinking water from the river. Though in winters lots of birding can be seen along the river & yes crocodiles, lots of them, in all poses welcome you during the boat ride. It’s the boon of no urban or industrial development on upstream of Ken River which has allowed it to remain clean & unpolluted water, making it one of the best habitats for thousands of species of birds, fish & it was heartening to see the flora & fauna around.

Just to mention, we have given small shoulder bag along with Salim Ali’s bird guide to all the guides of Panna forest & in a small cozy gate together they thanked us for the same & it was touching gesture! As well one more thing needs to be mentioned & that’s service of the staff at the place where we stayed i.e. Ken River Lodge as when you visit some place then the accommodation also counts very high to make your entire experience a pleasant one & on that scale Ken River Lodge’s team topped in my list till now, is all I can say! Well, something I must share before concluding, Panna forest offers you & no tourist should miss it & that is night safari. In forest there are hundreds of creatures like hyenas or civet (udmanjar) or sloth bear, porcupine etc which are night crawlers means these animals mostly moves only after sun set & obvious that you won’t get to see them in normal day safari where you have to come out of park before sun set.   In night safari which is in buffer zone i.e. forest area around the core/ reserved forests, it starts by 6pm in even & by 9.30 pm you are supposed to be back. And in this time you get to see all above mentioned creatures (provided you are lucky) & though its darkness so you can’t actually do much of photography but it’s in darkness you really feel the forest around. It’s in this darkness which I experienced in night safari at Panna which made me remember words of Stephen King that you can actually feel the forest is whispering about you, looking at you via thousand of unseen eyes & then you start really loving as well understanding the forest. As the forest has taught you to listen a new language, language of wilderness; it has given you a new vision, vision to see in the darkness & made you able to inhale a new fragrance, fragrance of nature. With this new identity I come back from Panna with a prayer in mind that dear God please preserve jewels like Panna & yes a sense of responsibility, I too have a part to play in that, however little it may be.

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some more forest moments you can see at link below..

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157691445868901

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.in/2017/06/conveyance-unique-get-together.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

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PMC Budget, City & Citizens!

“Corruption is the enemy of development, and of good governance. It must be got rid of. Both the government and the people at large must come together to achieve this national objective”... Pratibha Patil.

No need to introduce this name our first Lady President who is also known for her strait forwardness which has been reflected in her above quote. No subject of sharing isn’t corruption as there is nothing I want to write or even think about corruption such is its existence in & around us but what I want to share is about later part i.e. development & good governance. And yes when these two terms are applied to our Pune city then PMC’s name is bound to get pop up! That way Pune is no more just PMC but it’s a big conglomerate of PMC, PCMC, Cantonments, PMRDA & ZP i.e. Zillah Parishad, yet PMC is always in lead role as big brother of the house or say big sister! The news which made me remind Hon Ex President’s quote is there will be hike in property tax by PMC this year. This isn’t a news actually, as before every budget may it be Country’s or State’s or PMC’s, all is about “Kya badhega?” i.e. which commodities prices or which taxes will be increased; as any govt thinks only on the lines of squeezing the existing tax payer because only a living & healthy person can donate blood! No, I am not saying don’t increase property tax or any tax, that’s not allowed to say by being a builder in this city or State or Country, I am pointing out towards what as a common man, one expects from the City, State or Country for the taxes he or she pays & in return what he gets.

Before going in to expectations of common man from the city budget (lets control our topic to the city at present), we must have a look on the logic given by PMC or city bosses for proposed hike in property tax. I don’t have exact count but last year’s PMC’s budget was some Rs 5000 crores & people were as festive or thrilled as share brokers gets when the share market's sensex touches new high. But as usual to make budget for some figure & achieving that figure, are two different things is what our rulers always forgets & that’s what happened to budget’s last year’s magic figure too! None of the departments was able to generate the targeted revenue resulting the budget fall short nearly by 30% in revenues is what experts are saying. No one will speak in open but even the PMC officers are saying the target itself was wrong & that’s the reason it failed. For that lets see which are the major revenue generating departments for the PMC; they are LBT (earlier it was octry), then Building permission, Property Tax, Water Ses (pani patti), Signage & Hoarding Permission, Encroachment are the departments through which PMC’s revenue gets generated. In above list, top three grocers are GST, Building Permission & Property Tax, so let’s see department wise what has happened for the revenue front.

LBT, now GST which is a Central Govt’s tax is applicable for ever transaction in this city on any commodity & whatever is charged part comes back to PMC as local body. I think only this front is somewhat nearing target as compare to any other city in the State, Pune still attracts many people for purposes like job & education to migrate here & it’s the sheer population which is required to purchase so many things for its day to day needs, which in turn gets reflected in generation of GST for PMC! At the same time we should not forget this ever increasing population if is a boon for GST revenue then it’s a curse (pardon me I am not using it in bad way) to city as the city is supposed to provide basic infrastructure to this population which is its right! And on one side if increased GST revenue from the city is good sign of growth then that growth has to be backed up by various services which PMC is supposed to provide, which unfortunately isn’t happening! At the same time strong follow-up is required to get the share from GST collection from Central Govt, so PMC gets its share in time to keep its system running or else like justice delayed is justice denied, same way, payment delayed is payment denied!

Then comes, the building permission dept, which till just few years back used to be a biggest revenue earner for PMC! Those who don’t understand how building permission can generate revenue for PMC, for them lets understand every sq ft of new permission in the city (PMC limit) given by PMC gets nearly RS 200 sq ft of revenue for PMC. This revenue comes via many heads i.e. development charges, various premiums for getting free of FSI portion of building like stair case, passages, balconies, double height terraces etc. At the same time TDR consumption also is being done with premiums & then there are charges like road development which are not allowed to be taken yet PMC is charging it. So if approximate say one crore sq ft of area new projects are sanctioned then this means nearly Rs 200 crores revenue for the PMC. But since last few years this graph is consistently declining & PMC bosses must look in to the basics of the entire building permission as well real estate scene if they want to take the graph up. As unless more & more proposals comes for sanction the building permission dept won’t be able to achieve the revenue target & for that some ground work is a must. Any businessman knows there are two ways to make money, less turnover but higher margins or more turnover with lesser margins & till now PMC was doing earlier way. Though the turnover was less yet the end product i.e. flats was being sold but slowly surrounding areas of PMC i.e. PCMC & now PMRDA started developing & people got option of buying home at cheaper price. At the same time PMC’s imbalanced infrastructure made some areas (suburbs) well developed with all basic infrastructure, naturally rates of lands as well flats in these suburbs went sky rocketing & beyond buying capacity of most clients!  And as rates of all premiums as well development charges are directly related to ready reckoner rates of the lands buildings in PMC become more costly than in compare with other local bodies. And then times were/are changing, there are migrants coming in this city & they do need home, but the home should be in their budget, which isn’t possible in PMC limit so there is no demand & as there is no demand there is no new proposals in the quantity there used to be earlier & this has reflected in reduced revenues of building permission!

At the same time our dear UD’s (urban development dept) amazingly clueless & ever-changing policies, is one more thing for less supply of new building proposals in PMC area. From banning construction in 100’ distance from foot of the hills to no development adjoining nallahs or streams to parking policy to not taking decision about DPR in Metro track, so many policies are framed in such a way that its becoming impossible to plan a building & build it without making it costly for the masses! If you want more buildings then you need to create more spaces for them is simple funda of urban planning & then if you want to make the homes affordable then see that basic infra like roads, water, drainage & public transport is evenly distributed in all parts of the city, so people won’t rush for some particular suburb. Right now even in smart suburb like baner-balewadi also there is no even distribution of water supply, roads are not marked & at any hour of time rickshawalas refuse to come & this is about smart suburb, so imagine what must be happening in other parts. Lets understand people won’t buy flat in two cases, one where is rates are beyond their budget & second is rates are in budget but no infrastructure is available! Making & implementation of development plan i.e. DP plays a vital role here & unless we won’t do it fast, it’s difficult to make the revenue graph of building permission grow up again! Though PMC bosses are trying hard & things like architects sanctioning plans & twenty four hours plan passing like things are moving up but when your hand is fractured just pain killer won’t do & you need to apply plaster to the hand & not leg!

On the top of it there is issue of development of infrastructure in newly merged villages as joke is all the developments of the buildings is mostly complete already, of which premiums has been either received by PMRDA or the Collector but expenses will be done by PMC! I think politicians & administration should take a very strong stand that they must get their share of premiums collected in these villages & not only eleven villages but all thirty four villages from right now!

Finally its Property Tax, talks of hiking the same has been done every budget but our dear elected members don’t want to make their voters angry so it’s always thrashed out & instead false targets are given to other departments to cover the deficit as that’s easier & win-win situation for all! I doubt whether all the properties in PMC limit are recorded in first place & then are they taxed & then is the tax from every single property is being collected. As I said at the start, its healthy person who always ends up donating blood but what about the person who is healthy but wearing mask of sickness? Unofficially it’s said that nearly forty percent of city’s population lives in slums (read illegal constructions) & which isn’t surely been taxed, this means sixty percent people paying property tax for hundred percent people! And then out of that sixty percent nobody knows how many are listed in tax list. Then there is issue of old establishments & new one, for e.g. a new two bhk flat has to pay property tax of nearly Rs 4000 per year while a flat some twenty years old has to pay one third of this rate & in some cases of old city homes, this rate comes to few hundred rupees but residents of all three establishments uses same infrastructure of the city is a fact! I really wonder who derived this property taxation system of ours; this must be unique in entire world! May be there can be some logic but to a plain mind like mine, simple thing is like income tax, there should be only one criteria for property tax & that is carpet area I am using & use of it i.e. commercial or residential. The problem every time why tax hike is opposed by the so called “mananaiyas” is recovery of dues but never they jointly comes together & see that there is no single due of property tax pending & a drive for recovery is never supported! Then issue is how we are going to collect property tax from slums, I never remember any discussion in PMC’s general body meeting about it, though there always has been heavy discussions about making fines to the developers whose projects actually runs this city via revenue they generates! And on top of it when there is hike in property tax by already burdened limited tax players, it’s bound to get opposed by all segments & sure eventually it will be withdrawn!

Instead it’s high time that PMC bosses must act on increasing net for taking more property tax payers in, as well apply a same platform to all the citizens for tax payment. One more aspect is giving services in lieu of property tax as when I don’t get proper water supply, no drivable roads or public transport, public toilets stinks & public schools& hospitals are below par; in such case how you are going to make people compel to pay the taxes or expect their willingness to pay the property tax, is the question I will ask to entire PMC rulers!

In the mean time I read that hoarding fees collection Hon. PMC Commissioner expects to be increased to Rs 200 crores from Rs 20 crores at present, well I admire positive thinking of Mr. Commissioner but when ninety percent of hoardings are illegal & of political leaders which are rulers of the city, I doubt even last year’s target will be achieved! Rather looking at the revenue heads like Encroachment fees as well Sky Signs (hoardings) charges, on one side it’s the citizens who encroaches on roads/footpaths for selling goods & it’s the citizens only who buy their things from the encroachers! Also the Punekar’s must understand one thing, nothing comes free in this world & if you expect PMC to serve you better, then your duty doesn’t ends at just paying property taxes but in many other ways, like keeping your surrounding clean, saving water, using public transport, not buying vegetables from illegal encroachmenters & many such as then only the you are entitled to call yourself citizens of this city or else there is no difference between you & an illegal migrant, mind it!!

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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.in/2017/06/conveyance-unique-get-together.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

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com

Dubai, Refueling Passion!

“A few mistakes made by a person working productively cost far less than a person paralyzed by laziness or fear.”… Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

This year marks 11 years since His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is also Vice-President and Prime Minister of UAE, became the ruler of Dubai. His respect for business-like and service-led government has seen Dubai’s population grow from 1.4 million to 2.8 million during his 11 year rule; he has lead from the front and implemented strong public transport across the city and has seen Dubai Airport become the busiest in the world. And it’s my third trip in last three years to this dessert dream, made me respect Mr. Maktoum more with my every trip, that’s why I used his quote which speaks about his attitude towards not just Dubai which is his country & kingdom but life! And let me remind you, unlike most other middle east countries there is no oil money in Dubai, yet when its middle east first names comes to the mind of any outsider is Dubai & many of middle east rulers are secretly jealous of Dubai’s popularity amongst outer world! And Dubai has reached to this fame hard way as it takes more than just money to create a dream like Dubai amidst the dessert & then Dubai wasn’t cash rich ever like its sister i.e. Abudhbai leave apart its neighbors Qatar, Muscat & Saudi!

So what’s secret behind Dubai, even if you follow Mr. Maktoum’s quotes, you will know the philosophy which is backbone of Dubai’s glittering success, but is it all? No, its vision as well will to execute the vision & a professional dedicated approach which backs up that will to execute is the three legged success mantra of Dubai is what I conclude. And its same all over the world, ask any Singaporean or German citizen, they too have witnessed such transformation, then what special about Dubai? Well, the time span in which it has achieved this status as well the background & culture of the city, which is also equally important. Just few decades back it was settlement of some fishermen & pearl hunting divers, residing in hutments & now is Middle East’s trade center as well one of top tourist destinations of the world. Right from making the locals change their ways to live, to make the outer world confide in this settlement of fishermen & come here for investments is some achievement, which so called cultured & well settled countries like India & Pakistan also are unable to achieve. When I read about our sarkari babu’s (read govt officers) as well political leaders visiting so called forward countries like UK,  Spain & Sweden I always wonder (after visiting Dubai so frequently in recent) that why we restrict Dubai as just shopping destination, it’s actually our short sightedness! The city has done wonders on the front of town planning as well giving best life to its citizens.

During my this visit I spoke with many of my friends who are in different fields & are residing in Dubai over past decades & one common feedback was the city is best for its citizens. The Sheikh tries to do every good rather best thing for its residents, though its ways can be questioned (A thing you can’t afford to do in Dubai as a foreigner) but then ask any Indian, he will say we need a King type ruler though on social media everybody is happy in slamming our present ruler i.e. Mr. Modi, is different story! I agree we are a democratic country & there are limitations but then in one of his quotes Mr. Maktoum himself have said, you can win the people only by love & not by force! Especially when the world is changing fast & internet as well social media has become so powerful in such case to keep a population of some 2.8 millions happy is not an easy task! He has taken some unpleasant decisions, in very recent times from 1^st Jan 18, Dubai govt applied 5% VAT on every purchase & not just that its implementation includes book keeping for smallest of trades men with heavy fines (some 25k dirham) for over ruling the law. And when it’s making people respect the law no one can beat Dubai, as that’s why it’s least crime city in world in its size league! Jokingly it’s said in Dubai, that, “Dubai is a fine city, it charges heavy fines for any mistake you make!” It’s said that the VAT has been implemented as Dubai is facing some serious cash crunch (again something no one will acknowledge in open) though only time will tell whether the VAT implementation saves Dubai or worsen the things. But this hasn’t any way affected Mr. Maktoum’s plans to make Dubai number one in world as one look at the developments going around & you know he is a man on mission!

Like many of my friends always are curious about why I always visit forests, many a times same forest repeatedly; my answer is forest is ever changing & you will never find it same, how many times you may visit it. Same thing I feel about Dubai now, each time the city looks different, changing its appearance (needless to say on better side) for the visitors as well its resident. Always trying to offer something better to everybody associated with it & this time also wasn’t exception. I spent my maximum time wandering around the city with my friends who took me to not just popular tourist places but everywhere, even some places haven’t been explored by locals also! To name a few I will share three things, Miracle Garden, Dubai Canal Development & one is private residences colony named Springs. This will make you understand what an ideal city should provide to its residents.

Miracle Garden as the name suggests is a miracle in dessert as I have seen gardens & huge ones, natural as w ell man made but the to build a garden spread over hundreds of hector of sand & to make it sustain extreme weather condition which differs from 10 degrees to fifty degrees is something special. This garden is built over nearly eight lac sq ft area with millions of flowers blossoming, making it one of the largest natural flowers garden. There are many sculptures including a life size Emirates Boeing airplane, decorated with plants all over it. No wonder since its opening four years back the place is a must visit spot for tourists visiting Dubai. Well we too have many gardens in our Pune city but what’s difference is the way they are being presented to the visitors & maintained & marketed too, and we fail on all three fronts is a bitter fact barring some exceptions like Pu La Deshpande garden! Its spots like Miracle Garden which gives face to the city& stood to the expectation of the tourists giving them satisfaction of experiencing something unique! This is what a ruler has to do for the city i.e. seeing the dreams & make them reality!

Then there is one more wonder which came in existence very recent, Dubai Water Canal which is an artificial canal unveiled on 2 October 2013 and inaugurated on 9 November 2016. It comprises one shopping centre, four hotels, 450 restaurants, luxury housing, walkways and cycle paths. It is a three-kilometer long project starting from Business Bay (commercial district) into the Persian Gulf through Safa Park and Jumeirah, which are suburbs of Dubai. The width ranges from 80 meters to 120 meters. It is six meters deep and be crossed by eight-meter high bridges. It creates new public places and facilities with a total area of 80,000 square meters with private marinas for boats and a trade centre at the entrance of the canal. Well, leave apart statistics but would somebody have ever imagined feel like moving in city of canals i.e. Amsterdam while moving in a city in dessert? Yes it has become a reality & I was fortunate to visit this promenade &it has made out of the state way, a Dubai trademark! While walking along the canal, I noticed the minute detailing which has been taken care, along with sit outs on the walk way there are light poles with provision of charging the cell phones of the walkers, even this has been thought of! At evening music is played & at every electric pole, there are speakers, needless to say they are of company like Bose! Looking at these speakers I remembered reading news of theft of LED light fittings on a street in Pune; here in Dubai nobody can dare to think so even about the Bose speakers, rather nobody thinks on these lines. That’s the culture we need to cultivate as its public property & it has to be maintained to serve the city & that’s everybody’s responsibility, hope someday we Punekar’s (read Indians) understands it! The Dubai Canal will not only be a great tourist attraction bas well boost to somewhat down real estate market but it’s a great facility to spend time in open for the citizens of Dubai. Looking at that beautiful canal walk way & its development work, I remembered the dreams shown to us about river beautification & images of citizens throwing garbage in Mula/ Mutha from the bridges over them, flashed in my mind! May be we don’t deserve even such dreams is what I think whenever I look at such developments like Dubai Canal!

The third place I visited was of bungalows & town houses & its private development & on this front we too have any good developers who can match the workmanship but what is special is the scale of development. Springs, the project is of nearly four thousand bungalows & villas & is spread in clusters of three hundred/four hundred bungalows at a stretch. And main aspect is every cluster has a lake of its own, yes a lake! And the biggest lake was of periphery nearly two kilometer, now you can imagine the scale of this development. What such development has made impact is there is bio diversity now here & you can see sparrows, parrots & mainas along with even hoppoos (a bird which eats insects from grass) in the premise of these bungalows. This is very important aspect of development as on one side our Pune city is witnessing loss of sighting of sparrow like common birds & water bodies & here amidst a dessert Mr. Maktoum is busy in building entire life cycle! As do mind you doesn’t build a city with just concrete & steel but a city is build with life in it & that’s exactly what our planners (read rulers) needs to be understood!

One more thing has to be mentioned is Dubai’s synchronized transportation system RTA i.e. Road & Transport Authority which controls Metro, Local Busses & Taxis, making it separate subject of study!  Dubai is lot more than just a shopping destination or trade center & above three places are just at zalak (trailer) of what Dubai has to offer to its residents, as if you build a city keeping in mind citizens then the city is bound to become a worth visiting for the tourists also, is a simple fact about urban planning which our planners has failed to acknowledge repeatedly. By the way something about Mr. Maktoum’s attitude towards the city as a lot has been known about his wealth yet this guy moves in & around city alone, just like a common man, very same like Harun Al Rashid of Baghdad in Arabian Nights. He meets people, speaks with them about their expectations from the city, (btw fires public workers if found absent from their work place). Agreed he is a King & it’s always his way or high way but then one must appreciate his sincere approach to do not just something better but only the best! His ways can be doubted but not intentions & that’s why Dubai citizens respects & loves their King. Though few things like extending resident visa from two years to ten years can be thought of for making people promote to invest in Dubai as well ease of doing business along yet as he says in his quote, unless you are working you can’t do mistakes & he is ready to afford as well correct his mistakes!

What I take back along from Dubai is Mr. Maktoum’s passion to excel in every aspect of life & opting only for the best. Agreed we are a developing, poor country but so was Dubai too just few decades back. And if I alone can’t change my entire country yet I can definitely change my work place as well my individual surrounding; I returned to Pune with my piece of passion which requires no customs duty. Dear Mr. Maktoum, thanks for refilling my brain tank with this fuel of passion, which Dubai probably has biggest storage if not of oil!

-- 

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.in/2017/06/conveyance-unique-get-together.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

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com

A Battleship in Building! (Nikhil's B'day Letter)

Dear Bhikya, You know how I love writing, especially to your genre; 

 Whatsap has its own limitations so the letter sent to you was a bit cut short, here is the original version… mama

4th Jan 2018

..

"Anger is best when you learn to control it within yourself"... sanju mama.

dear bhikya,

 You know my habit of using quotes by writers or thinkers or even from cartoon /super hero movies but when it’s writing a letter to your own nephew, I thought using something of my very own, so used my quote! That way each day not just each year you grow but today you turned 21, an age where people used to be considered as officially grown up in our times! When I was young we used to wait for getting in to  21^st for many reasons, voting was the last but then legally you were considered as grown up & I used to think that now my opinion or suggestions people will take seriously (though I was wrong about it)! Today age of grownup has got down to 18 years only, as you get voting right as well driving license, yes drinking age has been increased to 24 but I wonder anybody follows that norm anymore! Bhikya, what I like most  about you is the dedication with which you do anything, may it be body building for six packs or studying for medical, which was your target & it’s this habit of yours which will take you ahead of all! As by me what your genre lacks is setting up goals & work hard towards them, may be its because for many of you, goals were already achieved by our genre making it difficult for you guys to have any choice for selecting your goals.

For my genre there were so many goals for us, right from having a decent shoes pair to having a two wheeler to getting a job, we have set up so many targets which most of you guys have already in your pocket even before you entered in 18's! In such times I am happy my nephew is one of rare species who sets his goals & work hard to get them.  But at the same time what you need to work on is your temper & not being able to accommodate things which you don’t like. Do you know who your biggest enemy is? None other than you yourself as when you set a target then you should make yourself in such a position that nothing can deviate you from your target & two things are any man’s worst enemies, impatientness & short temper! You have watched enough English movies, especially where characters of sniper’s are involved & showed taking aim at the target which is at very long distance. Do you know when it’s a shot at target some hundreds of meters away then however good & powerful rifle you got in your hand, you need to take so many things in consideration for e.g. wind direction & wind speed, as slightest of miscalculation of wind flow can change the course of the bullet! Most importantly a sniper has to be very strong & steady minded & needs to have control on his/her breathing, as even breathing moment can make you miss your aim. What most people will see is just a nice shot & admires the sniper when he shoots a tiny object at distance but how many could understand the hard way the sniper has come through & minute details he has worked on? Life is also taking aims & shooting, as when you are setting target as long as your career or body building, then you can’t afford to allow anything which will affect the course you have chosen! Here is where what habits you have cultivated came in light & like smoking or drinking, being short tempered & impatient too are bad habits which you need to keep away.

Bhikya mind one thing, any ship can sail smoothly with wind in favor & in calm waters but only a battleship is built to sail against the wind & in rough waters, yet to remain on the course it is travelling on! Our human body with a mind in it also is like a ship sailing in the ocean of life which has many ports named career, physical fitness, knowledge, respect, honor, relations which we have to reach at some stage of our life. And for that we need to build our ship so it can travel to all these destinations & for that there are many ways but one sure way is acquire knowledge & adopt humbleness. As like money, knowledge also is a weapon, much powerful. And do you know what any powerful weapon makes to us, it goes in our head from our hands & weapon’s aim is shifted to our own self & that’s the first step of defeat which we write for our-self! Being humble & paying respect to everybody is only way to keep the weapon in our hand & aimed at right target, mind it always.  So it’s up to you what you become by yourself, a battleship or a luxury yacht! That way every generation thinks they went through hardship while the next generation has got easy life because of their efforts but I never think so, as the world is changing fast & your generation will face more challenges & biggest challenge is to survive change as well pace of life. You are in a profession of medical science which is still considered as noble but now people want results & they want it fast & in their way; bhikya, biggest challenge is to stand to the expectations of others & that needs lots of patience! I often wonder about medical profession & English language where "patient" term is so important & directly related to another term i.e.  "Patience"; its irony that a doctor needs both i.e. patients & patience to become successful!

On your b’day I wish you lots of patience as if you achieve it, then patients will follow always! And do mind patience needs practice, just like your profession, the more you practice it the more patient & skill you get!

While you grow do remember, understand the term named success first then try to become successful as many successful people have failed just because they failed to understand success! And yes learn to smile not just laugh as smile comes from within & laugh can be just a surface activity, best way to face defeat is to smile at it & get over it!! There will be times when people will doubt your capacities, don’t ignore them but best way to clear that doubt is prove them wrong by delivering!! Last but most important any beautiful building becomes strong to survive test of the time only if it has solid foundation. And the foundation is always buried under the surface of earth, though the building which people admire is seen above the ground. Same way your success will be standing on many people who will be always in shadow & whom others will never see; your parents, friends, teachers are few of them. Never ever forget those who has been your foundation as many of them has sacrificed a lot for you as that only has made you what you are today & will be; all you have to do is make them proud by your existence, that’s all they will ever want from you!

That’s what I wanted to share & don’t restrict my words to you, as they may be written for you but they are for rohit, rohan, ketki & for all your genre, so do share with them as one more job of battleship is keep other vessels safe too!

njoy…lots of love

mama

-- 

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.in/2017/06/conveyance-unique-get-together.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

Think Green, Think Life
www.sanjeevanideve.com