A beautiful valley, a nice quaint village, strawberry fields all around and books all around. This feels right out of a fictional novel, but it is a small village called Bhilar in Maharashtra that also doubles up as a library.
The village, just a few kilometres from the picturesque hill stations of Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani, was until recently known for strawberry farms. Now, it is also named as India’s first book village with over villagers turning part of their homes to set up open libraries.
The idea was inspired by the Welsh village of Hay-on-Wye, also known as the ‘town of books’ and the government has expanded its scope. The Marathi language department’s experts have made a collection of over 30,000 books from all genres.
The books were then given away to homes, libraries, public places. The homes are given books as per genre and the spaces are identified with sings and paintings.
http://singhruby.com/
Photo – http://singhruby.com/
Travellers can just drop by a house and locals are extremely welcoming. Then you can read the books you like and get hooked on to them.
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Ganpat Parthe, a local said, “We carry on with our work even when the visitors come. One family member shows them the books kept in the cupboards in the hall and then they can sit on the sofas or the balcony and read for as long as they want. They are not a hindrance to us.”
The villagers feel this will help the children meet prominent thinkers, writers and be exposed to knowledge. The project was launched two years back in May 2017 and the footfall in the village has gone up, people not just visit during the strawberry season but otherwise also.
Bhushan Gagrani, principal secretary, Marathi language department, credited the villagers for its success. “There is no subsidy or incentive that they are getting. The government is just creating the social infrastructure – new roads, amphitheatre, parking space, dormitories,” he said.