Creating His Own Heaven On Earth

There may be no heaven on Earth. But it is made up of pieces of heaven here and there. The wizards stitch these pieces together to create their own heaven on the planet. The 45-year-old Vasanta Dangre from Umred, is a wizard in his own right and style because, he has donned every hat successfully beneath which lies the key to open the door of every heaven he has created.Nonetheless, he has had to move heaven and earth to get the keys of every heaven he has created. Born in a poor farmer’s family, he was the youngest among the five siblings. As a result, his two brothers left school to support father’s income. In fact circumstances shape the destiny of man. So, people around him goaded him to join traditional farming occupation of his father. However, Vasanta had a strong penchant to swim against the current.

So against the grain of his close knit circle, he decided to be a teacher. It so happened that Vasanta was in the tenth standard, when he saw one student on Doordarshan receiving an award for good academic performance. This proved to be a turning point in Vasanta’s life. Next day, Vasanta confined himself in a room for the whole day. At that time, the realization dawned upon him that he should become a teacher since his immediate family members lacked in formal education. Naturally, Vasanta who had shown poor academic performance till 12th standard, rose like a phoenix to secure first position in open merit in Umred, Bhiwapur & Kuhi tehsils in HSSC exam that year.

This was in 1995.However, future gnawed at him with all its ferocity because Vasanta is a self-made man and he was in dire need of money to support family. So, even as his inner voice told him to get admission into D Ed, he performed petty job of a courier boy to support family income- for which he used to get Rs 4,00 per month. But despite this, he scored 60 per cent marks in D Ed in 1997 which proved that circumstances did not determine where he should go. On the contrary, they only decided where he should start.But unfortunate part of his career was that in spite of getting good marks in D Ed examination, bad luck continued to chase him doggedly so much so that all his friends were selected as teachers in ZP schools for two years, while he was left out. So, he decided to join a private school with an intention of starting business of an LIC agent. But his cup of woes was not yet over, because he had to start from a scratch at the school known as Rajiv Gandhi Primary School.

He had to move from pillar to post to increase the strength of the school and also knock the doors of zilla parishad to get grant from government. Not only this, he did not get salary for many years, though he was made headmaster of the school. He also spent Rs 30,000 from his pocket to give facelift to the school. Hence, to compensate for this financial loss he had to conduct classes in guitar, which enabled him to earn Rs 2000 per month. However, since Vasanta was a man of sagacity, he started network marketing and earned big money, completed the course of an insurance agent from IRDA and joined SBI Life as an advisor and also completed the course of a computer operator from ITI Nagpur on an unpaid leave from the school.

But his efforts to lift fortunes of the school proved to be a wild goose chase as the school denied his rightful claim of headmaster’s post when the school received grant in the same year. Though eventually, Vasanta won the case against the school in a court of law, he spurned the job offer in favour of a woman who was more in need of a job. Indeed only good people like Vasanta can manage to do such noble things. He proved that he had buried the hatchet with the school because he had not buried down the human being in his mind…!So, Vasanta bade goodbye to the school permanently in 2004-05. However, he had immense confidence in his capacity to earn money wherever he would go. So he joined Vatsalya Real Estate company as a sales director. In 2007, Vasanta founded Shivkashi Developers and Builders. Vasanta is experimentative in nature because his creative mind does not allow him to continue in one area of work for a long time. So he went on to make an album of ten poems collected from local Umred youths, the music to which was composed by him.

The album was released at the hands of Swapnil Bandodkar and Vaishali Made in presence of Jitendra Joshi, Sonali Kulkarni and Bhargavi Chirmule in 2010. But, Vasanta sufferedmassive losses in this venture. So, he has decided to go into film production in future because he believes that there is no gain without pain. Vasanta, has so far, completed ten RERA registered projects and his 11th and 12 projects are in the pipeline at Kuhi and Sawargaon near Narkhed. Impressed by architecture of buildings in Singapore, he constructed a mall in Umred- which is first of its kind in nearby tehsils.The experimentative nature, creative mind and experience from so many reverses in life have taught Vasanta one more thing- not to put all his eggs in a single basket. Therefore, he also works in a Forex market. He obtained its training online from a US based company. But being full of positive energy, he is eveready to guide the youths. As a result, he motivated a large number of people to work in Forex Market. Normally, people say every person has one dark side. However, as far as Vasanta is concerned, he has no dark side and he shines like a silver from within because he is full of empathy for human beings. That is why when he saw the plight of rural students, he build a hostel Shivkashi Residency at nominal charges for them.

During Covid crisis, he gave this hostel to doctors and nurses to reside. He believes that anything in excess is a poison, be it liquor, money, ambition, passion or even education. “Education should broaden your views and not make people bookish”, he says. That is why he tells Gen Z to come out of the clichéd frame of life. “You will either get money or experience”, he adds with a shade of characteristic empathy for them.His philosophy of life is to work for family and society because he likes to take everybody along. He also likes to cash in on new ideas and technology because he does not like to live in a time warp.In personal life, Vasanta is fond of cars and changes his four-wheelers every five years and purchases next one at double the price. He is ably supported by his wife Sheetal, daughter Vanshika and son Shivank in all his efforts. Lokmat Media wishes him best luck and healthy and halcyon days for the rest of his life.