“A house without books is like a room without windows” said Heinrich Mann. It seems Bhilar village, Panchgani in Maharashtra follows this and so they came with the idea of creating a books village.
The village which has nearly 25 premises would open their gates for public reading on May 4 where Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is likely to attend the inauguration.
To ignite the enthusiasm in Bhilar village people and to give an idea that what genre of books are kept at a particular house, school or a temple, Maharashtra government invited several artists to take part in 3-day wall painting camp at Bhilar.
Praising the people and the administration of Bhilar, Tawde said: “The village administration has been very enthusiastic and working with us on the project. It is one of the factors which enabled us to complete the project. The best part is that the people of Bhilar have understood the concept of creating a book village very well, hence it became easy for us to implement it on the ground.”
“Although an international concept, we are giving it a very Indian look. The projects are aimed at promoting a book village or town of books and eventually make it a main tourist hub by itself like Hay-on-Wye. Not just this, the goal is also to promote Marathi language,” Tawde said.
To notice books related to Shivaji Maharaj, paintings of fort and the warrior king have been created on the walls. Similarly, to identify saint books, paintings of famous saints have been used to adorn it. You will see 25 different paintings in the village that has 25 premises.
“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 the Minister of Cultural Affairs and Marathi Language, Vinod Tawde.
Currently, all 10,000 books provided by the state government are in Marathi. The state plans to add 15-20 per cent more to the collection and those books will be in Hindi and English. “We also plan to organize literary events, interactions with authors and poets, and book-reading sessions,” Tawde said.
Yest another intiative has been taken and this time in the form of books village. Really a great initiative!! People who are fond of reading books will definitely going to give a visit to this Books village. 
