Painting is Mahajan's passion

Jagran\City Plus

B D Narayankar

March 6, Baner (Pune): He had a passion for art right from his childhood and did not allow his parents to have their say in pursuing his dream. He was determined to pursue painting as a profession, come what may.

Meet Chandrakant Mahajan, who has set up his small workshop at Baner and hopes to create a band of artists to make them achieve what he had in the last two decades.
Born in Pune, he spent a greater part of his childhood in drawing and painting. His parents, initially, encouraged Mahajan to draw and paint. While in class 8th, Mahajan was punished by his principal asking him to sit in a corner with his notebook and pencil. He did not mind this and instead drew a sketch of the principal sitting on his chair. The teacher was so much impressed by his work that he published the portrait on the cover page of the school journal. "This was when I realized I had it in me to be a good painter and artist," Mahajan said.

His craft teacher further encouraged him and soon he was taking training classes for all-age group.

After securing first class in HSC (Science-Tech) in 1982, he opted for Diploma in Foundation of Art in Abhinav Kala Mahavidyalaya, Pune, much to the dismay of his parents. "My father was against my decision. He was worried about my future. But I did not try to convince him as I knew he will realize one day. Today he is happy about my success," Mahajan said.

After securing Diploma in AED from Bharati Kala Mahavi-dyalaya, Pune in 1985, Mahajan passed BFA Applied Art from Bharati Kala Mahavidyalaya, Pune with a first class.

Mahajan's favorite theme is portrait drawing. "I like portraits because we are human beings and we interact with other human beings," he said. However, he doesn't evince interest in drawing celebrities.

Mahajan has staged six group exhibitions and one solo exhibition in Pune and Satara from 1988 to 2005, besides participating in eight exhibitions including Kalidas Academy at Ujjain in 1994.

He also participated in four workshops. The Camlicol Baljatara organized by Camlin Limited in 1987, the workshop on puppets by Balchitrawani in 1994, National Art Festival, Kalavart Nyas, Ujjain in 2004 and 10th Kalavrat International Art Festival, Ujjain in 2005 are some of his achievements.

Mahajan's other popular activities had been his participation in the professional workshop on Mask-Mime-Dance-Drama organized by Awishkar, Mumbai and Priority Theatre, London in 1986. He also featured in two TV programmes for school children telecasted on national hookup. The programme was organized by Balchitrawani in 2000.
Mahajan also conducted workshop for 'Tribal Art Teachers Training', organized by Adiwasi Sanshodhan Prashikshan Sanstha, Pune in 1999. "From 2008 onwards, I have been conducting painting workshops and sketching workshops in Baner," he said.

Baner women beat stress with paint brush

Jagran\City Plus

B D Narayankar

March 6, Aundh-Baner (Pune): Deadlines, exams and money worries equal headaches, depression and anxiety. Stress seems to be taking toll on many women professionals and housewives. Instead of hitting the bottle, like their male counterparts, they find a creative outlet in painting and drawing to beat stress with.

"People generally think housewives do not suffer from stress. Actually, the stress of running a family is sometimes killing as relations are based on emotional bonding. Spending a few hours painting or drawing leaves me in a calm state that is akin to deep meditation," says Rushali Kulkarni, a 32-year-old housewife.
Rinku Basu is a manager working at Geometrix. She confesses that painting helps her concentrate on work and relieve constant pressure.

According to Rinku, it was not easy being in her job and constant comparison with other professionals by her bosses didn't help. "I am a manager, which means every week's a killer. I have deadlines to meet. I rarely manage to press pause. I get anxiety headaches and often my brain is still so wired when I go to bed that I can't shut my eyes. In such circumstances, I like attending a painting and sketching workshop in Baner. Painting is powerful medium to change your state of mind and it gives you an outlet to forget about worldly problems," she explains.

Kalyani Narvane, a standard XII student says: "Many people say that stress doesn't exist for students. But I can certainly identify a number of aspects of my life that cause stress, particularly exams. I could definitely use a vent to let out stressed feelings. I am hopeful that my passion for painting and sketching will give me relief and reinvigorate my sapped energies."

Psychology experts say painting allows one to do something vital during stressful times, "Re-focus your activities onto things that are going to be achievable, personally rewarding, something you can exert some control over," says Dr Bharati Nimhan.

Gauri Bapat is a media manager for a leading company. She has immense pressure of meeting deadlines, volunteer work and socializing. "My best stress reliever is painting and acquiring new skills in drawing. Painting is a good mental exercise, just enough to help clear your mind before and after a day's work," she says.
"Painting is great for stress. But I do that out of passion. It makes me feel better and I enjoy driving people crazy with my artistic perseverance," laughs Shweta Chitale, an industrialist.

Psychology experts say painting allows one to do something vital during stressful times. It is personally rewarding, refocusses energy and allows one to exert some control.

Shopping at the click of a mouse!

Jagran\City Plus

B D Narayankar

March 6, Aundh (Pune): Most women count shopping as a pleasurable experience. But parking problem and long queues come with it, which makes the mood of the shopper blue. But hats-off to Amit Dixit from Aundh, who has thought of making shopping as easy as pushing a button. His maiden venture http://www.laxmiroad.in/ aims to end shopping woes of Aundh and Baner residents spending precious hours in the busy Laxmi road shopping area.

Hema Rodye, a housewife at Rohan Nilay Society, buys provisions by placing her order on http://www.laxmiroad.in/ and within minutes she receives all the stuff. "This shopping portal saves my precious time in finding parking space and waiting in long queues for hours together at paying counters," she says.

After the successful launch of http://www.laxmiroad/ .in, Amit is also launching http://www.punestreets.in/ to cater to the shopping requirements of Aundh residents.
The idea of launching a shopping portal came to Amit's mind when he went to Laxmi and DB roads for shopping and got irritated as he could not get parking space for a long time. "That was when I decided to get the markets online," he says.

http://www.laxmiroad.in/ was started in September last year. Amit says, "Initially we met many shop owners on Laxmi road and asked them to go online to expand their business. While earlier generation of owners was quite skeptical about the proposal, the younger lot welcomed the idea."

Not just the customers, but even the shop owners are pleased to have gone online.
More than 20 shops, which include popular names like Venus Traders, Verma Book Center, Kheliya, Karachi Sweet Mart, Shri Krishna Pearls, are registered at the portal and they offer most of their products to online customers. Jayant Kale, proprietor of 'Kale Sugandhi', which sells artifacts says, "Most of our online customers are from areas like Baner and Aundh. They place orders demanding every kind of item like scented sticks, durva, ashtgandha and sometimes even Guruji is asked for."

More than 600 people are registered with the site, but Amit agrees that the response is at a nascent stage. "Awareness about online shopping is the need of the hour. Right now, we insist that the customer pay in cash once he receives the order, but as awareness improves we would come up with net payment system," he says.

The system for delivery of goods is simple. After a customer submits a request to Dixit via the portal, he sends an e-mail to the courier company. A representative of the courier company visits the shop, collects items and delivers them at the requested destination.

Water shortage in Baner housing societies

Jagran\City Plus

B D Narayankar

March 6, Baner (Pune): There's an acute shortage of water in almost 90 housing societies situated on Baner-Pashan Link Road. Residents of the affected societies complained that they had been receiving scant supply with a low pressure.

The hard-hit housing societies include Ozar Housing Society, Hills Scape Housing Society, Kubera Bahaar Housing Society and Anand Bahaar Housing Society. Residents complain that in the absence of adequate water supply, they have to buy water through private tankers at exorbitant rates. "Residents are angry and are unwilling to pay steep rates for private tankers," says Kubera Bahaar Housing Society chairman S S Shukla.

"Until 2008, we were getting 1 lakh litres of water supply everyday, but now we receive just 80,000 litres. We do have two borewells, but they are running dry. We had approached PMC officials, but to no avail. Now the only option is that we have hired four to five private tankers (50,000 litres capacity) everyday after shelling out Rs 2,400," he complains.

Shukla's grouse is that though Pune city gets water twice a day, Pashan residents get it only once a day. "We are being treated as second-class residents. Why hasn't the Pune Municipal Corporation augmented water supply," he adds.

As many housing societies and commercial complexes are coming up fast in the area, residents fear that the water supply would deplete further in future. "I don't know on what basis PMC is promising citizens 24x7 water supply. There is no proper long-term plan with PMC. It's unfortunate," says Hills Scape Housing Society manager Pramod Kamathe. He also rues that PMC has not done anything to take forward their application to provide new water connections to housing societies to augment water supply.

"The water pressure is very low between 8 to 11 am. What is the use if we get gushing water after 11 am because by that time most of the residents are at their workplaces," says Shailesh Madhavi, resident of Kubera Bahar.

The situation is expected to continue till PMC's ambitious Warje water treatment project becomes operational. The project is scheduled to be completed in the next one or two years and augment water supply by an additional 286 million litres per day. "This will redress the problem of water shortage in housing societies," says deputy engineer water supplies Pramod Nirbhavne.

Pashan and NCP corporator Pramod Nimhan says that the source of water supply for the area is proving to be insufficient. "Water is supplied from Warje, which is channelised to Chandni Chowk and is then distributed in this area. The capacity of the source at Warje is 100 mld, which is proving to be inadequate given the number of people now residing here," he explains.

He emphasizes that such townships should set up and make use of Sewage Treatment Plants for additional usage of water that is required for purposes like gardening, washing, etc. It would prove to be a better utilization of water that would otherwise be wasted and the supply received from pumping station would be enough for drinking purpose.

Kubera Bahaar Society in 2008 was getting 1 lakh litres of water supply everyday, but now it receives just 80,000 litres.

At CFCs, get ration cards without hassles

Jagran\City Plus

B D Narayankar

Feb 27, Aundh (Pune): In an attempt to streamline the process of issuing ration cards and keeping a tab on touts and ill-practices, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) plans to set up a citizen facilitation centre (CFC) at Aundh soon.

The facility will provide a platform for residents to apply and collect ration cards from Aundh CFC itself. The facility will be run by the food development officer (FDO) on experimental basis.

PMC mooted the idea of setting up CFCs after Aundh and Baner residents complained of gross illegal practices and role of touts in distribution of ration cards, a spokesman of PMC said.

Rahul Borundiya, a resident, vividly recalls the day he finally got his ration card. "I had to run after it for months. Even now, on hearing about ration cards what comes to mind is my countless trips to the city rationing office and the peculiar smell of its interiors!,"
he laughs.

Though his family had been settled in the city for decades, he never felt the need for a ration card. Not until he was asked to enclose a copy of the ration card to prove his identity for a job application.

When he applied for the card he was asked to give details of his previous card. "I tried to convince them that we never had a card. They refused to accept it. Neither did they tell me what I was supposed to do to get a card," Borundiya says.

Finally one day, almost six months after he applied, he ran out of patience. "I bribed a clerk in the rationing office for Rs 1,200 and received the card within a month," he recalls.

Touts are doing brisk business at the PMC office, complain ration-card applicants. Ravi Aggarwal reveals he had been promised a form for Rs 300 without hassle of waiting in the long queue.

FDO Pradeep Patil, however, says that CFC would streamline the distribution of ration cards and keep a tab on illegal practices and touts. "The FDO himself will collect applications from CFCs daily. After scrutinising them, the cards will be issued within eight days of submission," he said.

"We have decided to decentralise the application and distribution procedures of ration cards to simplify the process and reduce the waiting period," Patil said. "We approached PMC in this regard and the process of issuing of cards will be undertaken jointly," he said.

Bridge unused for one year

Jagran\City Plus

B D Narayankar

Feb 27, Baner (Pune): Residents of Baner are angry that Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has done little to build an approach road on the Baner side of the already constructed Pimpale Nilakh-Baner bridge. The delay in building the approach road has left the bridge, linking Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, unused for more than a year.

The PMC attributed the delay in building the approach road to the land owners' unwillingness to sell the land required for the same. The civic administration, however, said that it is hopeful of reaching an agreement with them soon.

The rapidly growing areas of Pune and the twin township located near the Rajiv Gandhi Software Technology Park in Hinjewadi are close to the bridge. Thousands of people from Baner, Balewadi, Pashan, Sus, Mhalunge and other areas commute daily to the industrial belt in Pimpri-Chinchwad for work. Similarly, many from the industrial township come to Pune. These commuters currently use the Sangvi route to reach their destinations. The Pimpale Nilakh-Baner bridge will help them save considerable travelling time. Baner residents, in particular, will save around 15-20 minutes.

Ravi Malsure, a resident of Baner says, "I have never seen such incompetence on the part of PMC. For many residents on the Baner side of the bridge a quick drive to Pimpri has become more than a 5-km round trip."

"BPO cab drivers either have to drive around into Baner from the Pimpri side of the Pimpale Nilakh-Baner bridge to pick employees or stop on the Pimpri-side of the bridge and walk across the bridge to bring staff across," says Vivek Rajpurohit, another resident of Baner. "The garbage and recycling trucks have to make a special trip. To get our mail it's a five-km round trip," he adds.

Latika Waghmare runs a big provisional shop, a business just up the road from the bridge. She says that tempos and trucks coming to her shop have a hard time with the detour around the bridge.

Residents here are particularly concerned about the lack of PMC action to build the approach road from Baner side of the bridge. "PMC should have built the bridge after acquiring land for the approach roads. It is a waste of public money as the bridge is ready but has been unusable for more than an year," Snehal Kulkarni said.
Local residents also expressed concern about fire tankers and
ambulance services being delayed due to the
unused bridge.

The bridge, built on Mula river, was jointly constructed by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC). The two civic bodies equally shared the Rs 4.90 cr construction cost. The bridge was completed in September 2007 but has remained unused.

Madhav Latkar, development engineer of PMC says, "We need to construct a 500 metre-long road from the bridge to connect it to the nearest main road. PMC has been trying to acquire land for the approach road even before the bridge was built. But the land owners were reluctant to sell their land. We are still negotiating with them and hope to reach an agreement soon."

"Besides, there was no budgetary provision for the approach road in the previous years. But this year, we have made a provision for the same. The state government has also approved the development plan for Baner-Balewadi, so we feel that the land acquisition process should be completed soon. The tendering process for the construction of the road is also in progress," adds Latkar.

Believe it or not!

Jagran\City Plus

B D Narayankar

Feb 27, Aundh (Pune): Can something as worthless as old newspapers be put to use for a good cause? A group of people from a housing society in Aundh decided to do just that when they put raddi to use for education of children.

Last year, residents of Rohan Nilay 1 Society marched door-to-door and collected raddi from residents of high-rise apartment complexes in Aundh area. Thereafter they sold the raddi to the kabadiwallah and the money they raised was Rs 1,12,400! They put it to use by sponsoring the education of two underprivileged children.

The chief architect of this drive, Hema Rodye, adopted Rahul Baviskar, a cleaner in the society and Pratiksha Kamble, daughter of society electrician, after she realized their spark for education. "Pratiksha is studying in second standard and is good at Maths. Rahul is a 12th standard dropout and working as a cleaner in the society. Rahul had to give up studies due to financial constraints. So we decided to sponsor their education by collecting and selling raddi," says Hema.

"Rahul is thrilled to get back to studying. We have enrolled him into a computer class where he is learning data entry," she says.

So, how did it all happen? "The idea struck me one day and when I discussed it with some society members, they agreed to volunteer. Initially, when we put a proposal before the society, they thought raising a lakh out of raddi was a little far-fetched," Hema recalls, "Eventually, everyone pitched in and we achieved the target. Hopefully, we will continue raising funds from raddi collection," she says. "It is difficult to make people donate money but we got a tremendous response and collected over five tonnes of newspapers. Encouraged, we are working out the logistics to maximise the collection, set up professional targets and develop it into a regular fund-raising tool," says Hema.

"Donating money regularly is difficult but you don't feel the pinch while donating raddi. I am happy to be a part of this project because I know how difficult and expensive education can be," says Pooja Nair.
The volunteers who made it happen are Omna Nair, Shelly Rastogi, Mamta Chakr-avarty, Vidya Chaug-ule, Col Gadagkar, Vijay Pardesi, Mr Bangera, Sam Chakr-avarty and Suresh Vaidya.

Residents of Rohan Nilay 1 Society marched door-to-door and collected raddi from residents. Thereafter they sold the raddi to the kabadiwallah and the money they raised was Rs 1,12,400! They put it to use by sponsoring the education of two underprivileged children.