Journey of Endurance and Service in Pune Lavasa
Nestled in the lap of the Sahyadri mountains, Lavasa city was envisioned as a dream, an escape from the humdrum of city life. Designed on the lines of the quaint Italian fishing village of Portofino, this was to be a city of the future where education, health and well-being would be its primary pillars. At its peak, the city saw major institutions like Ecole Institute of Hotel Management and Christ University making it a destination city. Things changed quickly. The dream gave way to a township that struggled to find takers due to the bankruptcy of the promoters. The township soon was at a crossroads with most institutions choosing to withdraw their operations.
The question whether Lavasa will resurrect itself becomes important when one considers the small but crucial economy that the quaint township sustains as it strenuously strives to cater to two important constituents nestled in the verdant valley – the gated community of senior citizens who live there and CHRIST University which operates its expansive residential campus and provides the occupational mainstay for the local villagers who would otherwise be migrants into the nearest metropolis away from their kith and kin.
But CHRIST does more than that. The University’s Lavasa campus part of the 60-year-old Bangalore-based Institution has been operating in the valley over the last 10 years fruitfully multiplying its fold and the economy that it has created for the many villages in and around the valley. The campus does more than teach academic courses at graduate and post-graduate levels. The extended citizenship of the University has resulted in the creation and sustenance of infrastructure that keeps the township flourishing even in the midst of the bankruptcy that hangs like the sword of Damocles over the future of the township.
For Christ, this reversal from receiving foundational aid from the promise of a world-class township, now required the University to urgently step in and scaffold the township, for the livelihood of its locals, their small businesses, health and transport services and also by providing a meaningful social commune to the senior citizens residing within the township.
CHRIST Lavasa is, in a true sense, an experimental Gurukul that extends its ideology of service and excellence to the community through a symbiotic relationship with the locals, the town administration, the senior citizens and the vast expanse of nature binding all the various elements together.
The 10 years have been an exercise in nurturing systemic excellence through holistic education and community service, which are core institutional values. Looking back at the journey of the city, one can see how Christ University has become the core of this space.
