The month long ‘Amar Ekushey Book Fair’ on Saturday, the seventh consecutive day, turned into an animated gathering. The fair premises got a festive mood with a vibrant presence huge enthusiastic book lovers, authors, publishers and visitors. Readers and booklovers were seen roaming around the fair venues with their friends and families to collect their chosen books. Many were seen taking pictures and enjoying a lot with their mates as the fair venues turned into the grand get together places to escape the daily toil of the city life. Visitors of all ages flocked to different stalls and pavilions to buy books of their favorite authors. Many of them were seen returning homes with bags of books.
As the booklovers increased notably, the sellers struggled to manage huge number of visitors busy to buy books as per their choices. Publishers and the sellers of different publications were seen happy to see the huge crowd. Talking to Bangladesh Post, Riaz Uddin, a seller of Kothaprokas publication, said, “We are happy to see the booklover’s enthusiasm. Young readers are more interested to purchase classic novels, science fictions and comics,”
Another seller of the stall, Meherun Nahar, said, “Atmosphere of the book fair is better compared to the before. Wide premises with tight security and biggest amount of stalls have attracted booklovers this year.’ Emran Hossain, an attendance of Kothamela Publication said that detective novel is being sold out well comparatively.
Tuhin Reza, a student of Dhaka University said, “I have fascination on thriller books and so I am searching for those. I am easily moving from one shop to another as the fair premises are light and wide space.” “If I find any interesting book as per my budget, I will buy one today,” he added.
Abul Hasnat, who came at the fair premises with his friends, said, “Lots of new book arrived this year but the price is quite expensive that is hard to afford for a student. I want to purchase some of my chosen books but the high price frustrate me,” His friends said the same. This year, the authorities have allotted 179 units at the Bangla Academy ground to 126 organisations and 694 at the Suhrawardy Udyan to 434 organisations and a total of 34 pavilions have been allocated this year.
Like previous year, stalls for the mainstream publishing houses have been built inside the Suhrawardy Udyan while government organisations and the Bangla Academy stalls have been placed within the Bangla Academy compound. Holding of the fair on the Bangla Academy premises began informally in 1972, only to be institutionalised in 1978. The fair was then named Amar Ekushey Granthamela and subsequently a guideline for it was formulated in 1984.
The month-long book fair is arranged every year in February commemorating the sacrifices of our language heroes who laid down their lives on February 21, 1952 for establishing Bangla as the mother tongue.