Meet the 79-year-old botanist from Pune who has lived her entire life without electricity
Hema Sane, a botanist from Pune, gives us serious sustainable living goals by not using electrical appliances at all due to her love for nature and environment.
How long can you live without electricity? An hour, or a day at the most, in a worst-case scenario? We all know it’s next to impossible to live without electricity in today’s world. But not for Hema Sane, a 79-year-old botanist from Pune who has lived her entire life without electricity.
A PhD holder in Botany from Savitribai Phule University, and a former professor at Garware College, Hema lives in small house in Budhwar Peth, Pune. Hema does not use any electricity at all. One may ask why. The answer is simple. It is because of her love for nature and the environment.
In a conversation with India Today, she said,
“Food, shelter, and clothing are the basic needs. Once upon a time, there was no electricity. It came much later, I can manage without it.”
She added,
"I never felt the need for electricity in my whole life. People often ask me how do you live without electricity and I ask them how do you live with electricity?”
Dr Hema Sane (Image: The Hindu)
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Being a nature lover, Hema's house is surrounded by lush greenery consisting of different types of trees that also has birds’ nests. For her, the chirping of the birds in her garden serves as a natural alarm clock.
She told The Hindu,
“These birds are my friends. Whenever I do my housework they come. People often ask me, 'why don’t you sell this house; you will get so much money'. But I always say, 'what about these trees and birds?' I don’t want to go out. I want to stay with them.”
(Image: India Today)
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Hema does not possess any ancestral property. The land and home she lives in does not belong to her. According to her, they belong to her dog, two cats, mongoose, and a lot of birds. She firmly believes that she is here only to look after the property and none of it belongs to her.
Hema has also written a number of books on botany and the environment, and is also keen to work on new writing projects.
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