pune when the panshet dam wall burst reaching parvati was like a walk in the jungle and houses located in the path were made of mud after the wall burst causing flooding in the peth areas kothrud maharshinagar and surrounding regions became a preferred residential zone and stronger cement buildings came up this and many other interesting anecdotes from 1961 have been studied and will be published by citybased researcher and writer ashlesha mahajan it will be 60 years to the fateful day on mondaymahajans book titled 12 july 1961 will be released on monday the book is based on the panshet dam disaster the author has interviewed nearly 100 residents of pune who experienced the floods she has also studied 1012 books and a research paper by gokhale institute of politics and economics to put together the bookgoing towards parvati was a long walk at the time and there were lots of trees and medicinal plants en route the only mode of transport then was the bicycle after the floods struck people even climbed to the top of parvati hill to save themselves from the increasing water level people narrated their stories about how they lost important documents including the proof of their ownership of houses and lands said mahajanshe shared that a person with firsthand experience of the incident also stated that during the floods there were very few multistoried buildings the only fivefloor structure was on bajirao road most of the settlements were in chawls and wadas so the water came gushing into the houses in peth areas and took away several livesmahajan said at the time there was a lot of difference in the way people lived as a family families did not have separate rooms for children and elderly everyone lived in single rooms also this was the time when the suburbs were established and kothrud sahakarnagar maharshinagar and adjoining areas flourished as a fallout of the floods