Books take readers to a different world so now a different world has been created with books for all the bibliophiles. A book village in Satara district of Maharashtra was launched on the 4th of May, inaugurated by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. It proves to be a dream come true for the book lovers.
“Amchya ghari ya, Strawberry sah pustakanche anand ghyaa,” (please visit our home and enjoy reading books, along with our strawberry), said Pravin Bhilare who has offered his premises to stack books for public reading at the country’s first village of books.
Along with Pravin’s premises a stretch of two kms that includes 2 schools, 3 temples, 7 houses, a few lodges and home stays make up of this wonderful village of books. The concept of which has been adopted from Britain’s Hay-on-Wye, a Welsh town known for its book stores and literature festivals.
To make things more interesting in this book village Vinod Tawde, Minister of Cultural Affairs and Marathi Language who led this projected invited several artists to paint the walls and decorate the village. The artists have done a phenomenal job in painting each wall related to the particular genre of the books stacked up there.
The wall that has racks of books on the life of Shivaji Maharaj sees paintings of warriors and forts. The building that has books on different saints has paintings of famous saints and poets.
“These artists voluntarily accepted our invitation and boarded a bus to Mahabaleshwar to paint the walls in the village with their imagination. The outcome was amazing and for people to see,” said Vinod Tawde.
The villagers deserve a whole lot of credit for creating this book village as they were very prompt in offering their premises for the project even when they earn a profit of Rs 40-50 crore every year through its strawberry produce. Also, they understood the concept of the book village very well and contributed enough in the implementation of it.
“We also plan to organize literary events, interactions with authors and poets, and book-reading sessions,” Tawde said. The government now is planning to create a second such village in Malagund near Ganpatipule and the bibliophiles are definitely looking forward to it.
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