Ekushey mingled with spirit of book fair

Amar Ekushey book fair premises turned into a human sea on Sunday as people, after paying their homage to the language movement martyrs at the Central Shaheed Minar, thronged into the fair that also witnessed huge sale, one of the best so far in this year.
Marking the Martyrs’ Day, also the International Mother Language Day, the book fair was opened at 8:00am instead of normal 3:00pm so that people who came to the Central Shaheed Minar for paying homage to the language movement martyrs could visit the fair.
By afternoon, the book fair turned into a human sea. After sun set many visitors, mostly women, keep them off from book fair seeing long queues at entrances and overcrowded book fair premises at Bangla Academy and Suhrawardy Udyan.
In the late afternoon, hardly any room was left for the visitors to move around the fair premises. The attendants at different stalls were found extremely busy selling and displaying books.
All the corners of book fair — from the little magazine corner through the children corner to the Bangla Academy stall — were full of people.
Many dressed in black and white and with impressions of Bangla letters and Shaheed Minar on their faces and hands, almost all book lovers returned from the fair with bags of books of their choice.
Almost all the stall attendants said that they had a large sale, so far the highest in this book fair. Stall attendants of Bangla Academy, Ittadi Grantha Prakash, Anya Prakash, University Press Limited and Chandrabati Academy said that their sales were very good.
Strict security measures were taken in and around the book fair on the day. Mansur Ahmed who came out of the book fair with bags of book at about 1:00pm said that he came to the fair after placing wreath at shaheed minar.
Mashiur Rahman a Mirpur resident said that he got into the habit of visiting book fair after placing wreath at shaheed minar. ‘If I do not visit book fair on the day, I feel I am missing something.’
According to the fair information centre, 210 new titles hit the stalls on the day.
In the morning, the academy also organised a programme where about 130 poets from different parts of the country recited their self-composed poems with poet Asad Chowdhury in the chair.
The Bangla Academy held Amar Ekeshey Memorial Lecture on the day. Social scientist Anupom Sen delivered the lecture titled ‘Abasan: Bishwe O Bangladeshe’ that was presided over by Bangla Academy president Anisuzzaman, also Dhaka University professor emeritus.
The academy will hold a discussion baul Shah Abdul Karim marking his birth centenary.

 

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