Delhi has very few windmills compared to places like Lowville in New York, says R.V. SMITH A windmill looks just as much out of place in a landlocked area like Delhi as perhaps a lighthouse. And so the windmill that stares at you near Moti Bagh in New Delhi (and the one at Pusa Institute) draws a lot of comment from passers-by, for it generally stands limp, like a ceiling fan which has been switched off. But this windmill has a purpose, and a very worthy one at that, for it is used to draw water from a pond for irrigation of saplings planted by the Delhi Administration sponsored Smriti Vatika Society. Set up many years ago, the society laid the first Smriti Vatika or commemoration park in the Capital. And then another one across the Yamuna. People who wanted to plant trees in the park initially had to make a donation of Rs.1000 to 10000 to perpetuate the memory of their near and dear ones. A plaque proclaims the name of the donor and the one in whose memory the tree has been planted. Novel idea This novel scheme, suggested by a former Lt.-Governor of Delhi, M.N.K. Wali, was launched on a ten-hectare project. The response to the scheme was fairly good with over 200 people from all over the country having registered themselves. By the time the year ended and 1987 dawned many more joined the venture, and as the years passed by the ten hectares got filled up, with people of all faiths and communities trying to commemorate their friends and relatives. To cater to the mounting demand another Vatika was started. Sit near the windmill and all sorts of fanciful ideas come to mind. One is reminded of Holland which used to be known as a country of dykes and windmills. The scenario is quite different here though, with not much water around; but there is some foliage on which the mind feeds and the eye forms the description of the shape of things to come. Talking of windmills, there are windmills which supply power at cheap rates and windmills which help to run flour mills. One is reminded of the Mill on the River Floss, in the celebrated novel of that name. But India and Delhi particularly have very few windmills compared to places like Lowville in New York, which has 195 giant turbines above the 400-ft.-high Tug Hill. These turbines have 130-foot-long blades that spin at 14 revolutions a minute. One wishes that some enterprising firm does something like that in Delhi too. Besides other benefits, it will save us the tedium of long hours of power cuts. However the Maple Ridge project has come with a big emotional price: it has made life unbearable for many families which find the "rhythmic woosh, woosh, woosh of wind turbines' unbearable. One resident says "He hates the sight of the windmills as they disrupt his sleep, invade his home and consciousness' But surely if the number of wind turbines is less and they are not as huge as the ones in Lowville, then they would not disrupt life and perhaps make it more bearable. And just think that with so much wind power available we could have many more Smriti Vatikas not only in Delhi but elsewhere too.