Dr. Deshmukh & his windmill...
Chiplonkar Y.M.
( 11th April 2006 )
Meet Dr. Ulhas Deshmukh, Prof. of Bio Chemistry, D.Y.Patil College, Pimpri, Pune. It seems that he has a very unique approach to the problems in general !.
Recently, I read one article in a daily, which wrote about the windmill he designed and erected himself on his " farm house plot " at the footsteps of the Fort Sinhagad, near Pune. Being interested in making things at home myself, I was keen in having a look and appreciating the efforts. Finding out the address was a small job; only contacting the editor of the Daily. ( SAKAL , also available on the internet at
Daily Sakal on Internet www.esakal.com ).My guru Mr. V.P. Rabde,VU2VPR, a radio amateur from Pune and myself decided to visit his site immediately. Dr. Deshmukh was very kind to take us to his farm house next day.
The exact location is near the village called Khamgaon Maval, about 2 kms from a bigger village called Khanapur. Dr. Deshmukh had planned his retirement activities well in advance ! He has retired from KEM, Mumbai, last year and is currently with D.Y.Patil College ,Pimpri,Pune. The result of the plan is 54 Guntha ( 40 Guntha= 1 acre ) land of his own to play around and keep himself fit by doing as much hard work as possible. He has dug two bore wells in his plot of land. There is enough water available but bringing it out was the problem. He has even made his own "pohra " with a footvalve which can bring 4 to 5 litres of water every time you dip it the bore of 6 inch diameter. Having used it for a while, now he has a pump run by an engine working on Kerosene oil. He has done rain water harvesting using the roof of the two rooms built in the plot, storing about 1.5 lacs ( 0.15 million litres ) litres of water in an year.
Since there is no electricity available near by, he decided to make his own power through a windmill. The windmill is all home made using scrap material like 200 litre plastic barrels, MS angles, home built alternator, etc. The beauty of the windmill is that it rotates around vertical axis thus eliminating the problem of wind direction. He has used one car battery of 12 volts which gets charged by the rectified dc voltage from the home built alternator. The battery is more than enough for the LED clusters which he has fixed on the outside of the coconut half hung like an electric bulb.
Here are the photographs of his windmill. Standing on the cubical brick work is Dr. Ulhas Deshmukh, watching curiously is myself, Chiplonkar, (ex VU2CAA ). Photograph taken by Mr. Rabde Vilas, VU2 VPR.
Dr. Ulhas Deshmukh, standing at the door of his load bearing construction of two room farmhouse.
Below :
15 feet high windmill made out of 200 litres plastic barrels cut into two
halves. Standing on the brick work is Dr. Ulhas Deshmukh, watching curiously
is myself, Chiplonkar. Photgraphs by Mr.Vilas Rabde.
Dr. Ulhas Deshmukh can be contacted on his residential telephone number in Pune, India, at
0091 020 25464269
Or on his cell phone number
9822864672.
