WW Rainbow

It was a dull afternoon somewhere in mid-august of 2008. I peeped out of my kitchen window still sipping from my cup of foaming cofee when I saw part of this rainbow beckoning me from behind C building. In under one minute I was atop A-bldg trying to capture the entire version with my Sony DSC W60.

In the photo above, note the one-of-its-kind joint in the pillar which glues together B- and C-buildings. I don't know how pmc approves of such innovations but it has been a source of perennial problem of water leakage for those flats of C-Bldg who share the terraces on the left of this joint.

However hard I would try, the entire rainbow won't fit in the lens view. The one below is clicked atop A-bldg.

This is a snap from C-bldg terrace:

Heavy winds were blowing over Whispering Wind with no pun indended and it was a bit risky but finally I climbed the water tank on the terrace of B-bldg seen partially in the above two photos and managed a panoramic view using a different Nikon Coolpix as below:

If you are on IE, right-click and select 'open in new window' to marvel at the breathtaking view.

Views From Kumar Sahwas

Kumar Sahwas people are one step ahead of anyone at Whispering Wind. They ask the security to get the potholes on the road ouside their gates repaired. Security told me so. I generously gave a copy of the PMC letter to the security and within 4 hrs he got 22 signatures from the
residents.
Later today he gladly escorted me to the top of their water tank on the terrace and I clicked 360 views of the surrounding and felt like one big eye.

Perspective of Whispering Wind as it appears in their sales brochure. Right click the photo to download full-size view. For a 6 mPixel image, write to me at tushar.suradkar@gmail.com.

Nascent and naked MontVert Biarritz.

This photo taken just in the nick of time - Magnolia is all dressed up while Valenncia has not yet taken off. This view will never be the same again. Right click photo to download.

The famous turn near Kumar Sahwas. People from Whispering Wind have burnt more energy on getting this repaired than any other issue but without success as of 26-May-2009.

View of Crystal Garden coming up and full birds eye view of the road from Whispering Wind upto Pashan-Baner link road.

MontVert Finesse - All three buildings C, B and A visible in one view only for a limited time until kumar project comes up between Kumar Sahwas and them.

View of Buena Vista from atop Kumar Sahwas overhead water tank:

Birds eye view of the other part of Pashan-Baner link road upto Sus road:

Vast area of the original Sushant Coope Hsg society which was parted away for the sake of the 120 ft wide Pashan-Baner Link road and partly to MSEB. The stone-built structure in the top-left corner houses MSEB stuff.

Birds Plants and Worms

Plants are critical to our health. Not just because they purify the air or simply provide shade but because I realised that planting, watering and nurturing trees help burning more calories, produce more sweat and results in more streching than walking aimlessly around Whispering Wind.

This picture taken a week before the Ganesh Sthapana in Feb 2008 shows plants not more than a foot tall. I have been painstakingly watering and nurturing these for over a year now after the gardner was found absconding for not being paid the maintainance dues for several months by the builder.

When some residents were up in arms against letting these trees grow in this place and wanted them to be uprooted and planted elsewhere, only a timely intervention by me saved the trees from being uprooted in mid-summer and lost for ever.


I remember relocating trees when I lived in Bavdhan. We first made required pits at an alternate location nearby, added rich black soil, added manure, etc. and then proceeded to uproot the existing ones. Homework is a must when one assigns himself a task, especially a destructive one.






Sparrows taught me punctuality. It started one day in early april 2007 when I placed foodgrain and a water bowl in my terrace. Thereafter the sparrows and various other birds have been habitually picking grain and water from my terrace. I am reminded of the supplies being exhausted by their higher pitched chirping in the morning.


Lastly, my half dozen worms whom I handpicked from under the rajaram bridge in Karvenagar in June 2008 have not only survived over the year but have grown in numbers multifold creating rich manure all the while. I have been meticulously seggregating bio-waste from my home during entire last year.

Pune mayor was recently in news for visiting the neighbouring PCMC bio-wate treatment plant with a view to setup a similar facility for Pune. This was in wake of the agitation by residents of Uruli-Kanchan where most of the garbage from city is dumped.

Today I feel proud to be a worthy Puneite for having taken the right steps in the direction of saving our environment from degrading by treating the bio-waste from atleast my house in my backyard.

Whispering Wind Neighbours

As of 31-Mar-2009, Whispering Wind had no access road, no internal roads, no security cabin and no PMC bus route or bus service on the Pashan-Baner link road.


There were no children playing equipment until 3 weeks ago or no main gate for almost 3 years after occupation of flats at Whispering Wind.


But residents genuinely felt proud of their neighbourhood where the Richie rich in town lived in mansions spread over acres surrounded by sprawling lawns and of the owners who moved in and out of their homes in choppers that passed right over the Whispering Wind buildings.

The BMW 6 series

The new Beetle

The great Phantom

The Audi A8.... Hey but wait..... do you see our beloved Whispering Wind out there...... its to the rightof the left pillar in this photo below:

Pune Mirror Troubleshooters

After bombarding emails for over 2 weeks, Pune Mirror, a suppliment with The times of India, agreed to and published the plight of the Pashan-Baner link road along with the photograph. Not to mention, my 12 yr old photo was also duly published alongwith.

Pune Mirror has a weekly feature called PM-Toubleshooters and this appeared in the 13-April-2009 issue of Pune mirror. See http://epaper.indiatimes.com/

The methodology of PM Troubleshooters is they visit the problem site once informed and then contact the PMC authorities to take up the issue with them. They have the PMC people's direct personal numbers so they reach them on Sundays too, as one the Pune Mirror team members revealed to me.

The most remarkable feature of the PM Troubleshooters page is the deadline they extract from the PMC authorities. The deadline date is published along with the problem and later on the promised date they take a review of the problem.

The fullsized 1600x1200 photograph incdentally is the same that I clicked for the blogpost of 4-Mar-2009. See http://whisperingwindonline.blogspot.com/2009/03/pashan-baner-link-road.html

WW Views From Hilltop

The hills and the small temple on the hilltop beckoned me eversince I used Baner road in 1998 when I first visited Pune.




This is the picture of the temple taken atop the hill. The buildings behind the temple are on the other side of the hill and along the ExpressWay:


Although throughfare from Rolling Hills was closed after Mar 2008 since the Pashan-Baner Link Road was completed, earlier one could simply start walking (or drive) from Whispering Wind, cross Crystal Garden, cross Pashan-Baner link road, enter the Rolling Hills gate and take a left, marvelling at the breathtakingly beautiful row houses of Rolling Hills and then exit the gate near the heavenly charming Shyamalee bunglow and the adjoining waterfall and finally start ascending the hills on the left.

The complete route from the Whispering Wind to the hilltop is also seen clearly in this view. Whispering Wind is far away in the middle of the photo. No Crystal Garden is seen in front of WW since I visited the hilltop in Dec 2007.


Once on the hilltop, the view on the left side shows Baner Road. Click the image below to enlarge to clearly see the point where Pashan-Baner link road meets Baner road. Pride Purple Accord on the left and Symantec are also seen. Staples had not come up yet (as on 18-Dec-2007).


Moving a little to the right from this point gives a different perspective of Whispering Wind. Below is a 3x optical zoom view of WW. On the left is Echelon (white building) and no one had taken possesion yet at Echelon. Next seen is Spring & Blossom, Also seen are OJAS and Kumar Sahawas and finally on the extreme right is Mont Vert Fineese. Behind Whispering Wind are seen Magnolia and Mont Vert Biarritz under construction.

This green building, Basant-Bahar, at the far end in this photograph below is at the foothills and would continue to be seen from my house A-16 and most other flats of Whispering Wind as on 30-Mar-2009 and until Whispering Wind Bldg-E comes up and forever obstructs the hill view.

Below is the view of the barely visible Whispering Wind from behind Basant Bahar. Mostly white faces of Basant-Bahar are visible from this angle atop the hill:

Footsteps to descend the hill start immediately behind the trees on the nearside in the photo above. Once at the foothill, one can easily walk along the Basant-Bahar compound wall to reach the Pashan-Baner Link road, but ascending using this route is extremely diffcult since the path uphill is not visible clearly.

More on Pashan-Baner Link Road

As on 7-June-2007 when there was neither magnolia nor montvert bizaritzzz, the PB link road looked quite messy:

(Click photo to enlarge)

And as on 7-Mar-2009, its still looks equally messy, with all the rubble dumped as in previous post and on the other side of WW, between Rolling Hills and Crystal Garden, you are welcomed by this funny looking gate right in the middle of the road.

I still remember this gate when it used to remain closed back in Oct-Nov 2005 and people on foot, bicycles and bikes used to pull-up the fencing on the left side of this gate to pass under the fencing.... very funny.

Pashan Baner Link Road

The moon is visible to the naked eye from earth directly. Man decided to land on the moon, so designed a spacecraft, landed on the moon and returned.

Similarly, Whispering Wind, located on the pashan-baner link road, is also visible directly from both Baner Road and Sus road in Pashan. In the photograph below WW is directly visible from Sus Road:

(click photo to view enlarged)

While in this photo below, the building is easily visible from Baner road:

The irony is that Whispering Wind residents, whose address is on this road, cannot take this road in reality to reach the baner or the sus road without taking a roundabout route to the two roads.

While many continue to believe that the DP road that goes in front of Athashree is the Pashan-Baner Link Road, the PB link road is only a myth. The latest image as on 4th Mar 2009 looks at best, like this:

Watchful Eyes

Builder, security and dogs - all are closely watching residents' inaction and lethargy very closely and are taking undue advantage.

With no one objecting, sand from the sandpit near temple has been all taken away for use in construction of a new phase. Not just that, water from B building has been used unscruplously since mid-october, for soaking bricks right upto construction of office and watering plantations adjacent to the new office. Also, electricity is provided to the newly constructed office from near the temple with the channel dug up and worked upon very promptly.

The security staff are much smarter. With their immediate supervisor stationed in far away Athashree and no resident bothering to question, security has turned lax and sloppy. No records of incoming visitor or vehicle is kept. Gate is open through all night.

Only 4 weeks back and in open daylight, thugs were able to successfully open the main door latch of my flat using duplicate keys. With my wife still in the house, not bothering to pay attention since we both are used to opening the latch with our own set of keys, the thugs smartly asked for a file that I had supposedly asked them to fetch. Very funny and very very scaring especially since no security person ever noticed the thugs entering the premises and walking all the way upto my flat.

The dogs are smartest of all. Again with no security personnel or resident willing to tame, the dogs have been foremost at taking undue advantage of the prevailing situation. Dogs roam freely in the building premises, climb up the staircase in building, barking loudly at night, making the premises dirty.

The last but not least, Whispering wind is perhaps the only known residential building in town to have a overflowing sewage chamber right inside its premises as in the photo below:















Yes: Its a dead rat barely 20 feets away from the flats and if one walks further towards the channel where the sewage is openly drained, it has filled the side-channel with sewage water upto 30 ft. towards the main gate.

Whispering Wind Problems

Pending work of incomplete amenities like internal roads, children play area, intercom, etc. and many other maintainance issues like inefficient security, stray dogs, nuisance created by bachelor tenants, overflowing sewage right inside the building premises is on top of mind of most residents than any other thing these days.

Many residents exchanged mails but no consensus could be reached on a meeting time due to a long weekend, with 26 January falling on a monday.