Ekushey Book Fair is now a popular festival in the life of people. It is held only once in a year. Ekushey Book Fair or Amor Ekushey Grontho Mela (“Book Fair of the Immortal 21st"), commonly known as Ekushey Boi Mela (“Book Fair of the 21st"), is the national book fair of Bangladesh. It takes place over the entire month of February every year, and is devoted to the martyrs who died on 21 February 1952 in a demonstration calling for recognition of Bengali as one of the state languages of Pakistan.
Despite the fact that Ekushey Boi Mela began simply as a book fair, it has evolved into a great event, enlightening the spirit of the contemporary Bengali nation.
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When February comes we feel happy. It has close connection with our glorious past. We can proudly say that we are Bengali. The Bengalis generally are not that much interested in reading books. But the scene of February is quite different. The whole nation waits for this month, especially for the book fair.
All set to begin Amar Ekushey Book Fair
DHAKA, Jan 30 (BSS) - With the Amar Ekushey Book Fair-2010 just one day away, the publishers have almost completed preparations for the month-long annual event beginning on February 1.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to inaugurate the fair at 3:00 pm.
All the publishers are now passing busy time shuttling between the printers' and binders' to get their books ready for the fair.
Noted publishing houses such as University Press Limited, Anyaprakash, Agami, Samay, Mawla Brothers, Bidya Prakash, Anupom, Pathsutro, Oitijjhya, Suchipatra, Sahitya Prakash, Pathak Samabesh, Muktadhara, Dibya Prakash and Sandesh will start releasing their titles from the first day, the owners said.
Mohiuddin Ahmed of the University Press Limited said his publishing house would publish 28 titles in the fair and 20 of them would be on display on the opening day.
The Oitihijhya chief executive, Arifur Rahman Nayeem, said at least 75 titles would be released in the fair from his house and three to four titles will hit the fair on the first day.
Agami Prakashani will bring out about 45 titles, said Osman Gani, owner of the publishing house.
Rabin Ahsan of Shraban said his house would publish 50 titles for the fair.
Saeed Bari of Suchipatra said his house would publish 40 titles this year.
Some publishers said the price of books would go up by five to 10 per cent this year because of the increased prices of paper and other raw materials.
Rajib Noor of Pathsutro, however, said he did not see any significant increase in the price of books as production cost had varied a little compared with what it cost in the past year.
Like the previous years, book lovers and visitors will get 25 percent concession on the price of book published by different publishing houses and organisations and get 30 percent concessions on books published by the Bangla Academy.
"Our preparation is at the final stage. The academy compound is almost ready and the rest of the work would be finished shortly," said Murshid Anwar, deputy director of the coordination and public relations department of the Bangla Academy.
The deputy director said list of new books and other information of the fair will be uploaded on the internet regularly and two news bulletins on book fair will be published daily.
Seminars will be held regularly on the theme 'History of the Language Movement in 1952'.
In the last year there were 436 book stalls at the Ekushey Book Fair and the total sale proceeds were Taka 18 crore.
Poetry collections top the list of 2,741 new books unveiled in the last year's fair, closely followed by novels and essays. Bangla Academy sold books worth Taka 58 lakh in the last year's fair.
Amar Ekushey Book Fair, popularly known as Ekushey Boi Mela, is the most popular book fair in the country, which continues during the whole month of February every year, and is dedicated to the language heroes, who died on February 21 in 1952.
Chittaranjan Saha of Muktodhara Publishing House was the first to set up a stall on the Academy premises on February 21, 1972, to mark the Shaheed Day, which was later announced as International Mother Language Day.
The Bangla Academy took over the fair in 1978 and in 1984 it was named Amar Ekushey Boi Mela, according the Academy sources.
Task force to prevent piracy at Book Fair
Twenty-four books arrived on the second day of the Amor Ekushey Book Fair 2010 yesterday. This year a total of 505 book- stalls are participating in the fair along with a total of 366 organisations.
Shahida Khatun, member secretary of the fair, said that this year they found more enthusiasm among the people compared to last year.
This year the best publisher will be awarded prizes for publishing best books after the name of Chittoranjan Saha who was the pioneer of the book fair, she said adding that a total of 26 Little Magazines were participating in the fair. The number of publications last year was approximately 3,000.
Director General of the Bangla Academy Shamsuzzaman Khan told The Independent that they had made huge security precautions to hold the fair.
About illegal publications and pirates books, he said that the Academy had set up a task force to prevent piracy.
The fair will be open for visitors from 3 pm to 9:00 pm.
On holidays the fair will be open from 11:00 am to 9:00 pm.
On 21 February the fair will be open from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm.
Talking to The Independent, Shahidul Islam Biju, a publisher of the "Pathak Shamabesh," said: "The readers must change their reading habits. They should read more subjective books rather than novels and story books.
Samaresh Devnath, secretary general of the World Poetry Association, said: "From today the fair started getting its real colour. We hope this fair will be successful."
In the afternoon Moinuddin Khaled presented the keynote paper in the discussion meeting on late Kamrul Hasan, Kazol Bandopadhya and Nisar Hossain took part in the discussion presided over by Motiur Rahman, editor of the daily Prothom Alo.
History
Muktodhara Publishing house started a little sell in front of Bangla Academy in the 21st February 1972,[1] the Shaheed Day, later International Mother Language Day. Chittaranjan Saha of Muktodhara took the initiative.[2] Later, other book publishers joined there unofficially. Gradually it became official and the most popular book fair of Bangladesh. Bangla Academy took over organization of the fair in 1978. In 1984 it was named Amar Ekushey Book Fair.[3] Notably, in 1990s, another national book fair called Dhaka Boi Mela was initiated. This book fair is organized by government in December every year
Importance
Although Ekushey Boi Mela started merely as a book fair, it has evolved into a national cultural festival reflecting the cultural spirit of the modern Bengali nation. [1] In addition to book sales, Bangla Academy organizes literary and cultural events everyday. Thousands of people gather everyday not only to purchase books but to spend time in the company of books and their authors with a patriotic zeal. There is no entry fee. Publishers of Bangladesh take year-long preparation to publish a huge number of books during this month. Profit is not the consideration. In 2008, 362 book stalls have been set up by publishers, book sellers and such other organization including Bangla Academy and Nazrul Institute.[4] The venue of the book festival and outside is decorated with banners, festoons and placards in conformity with the spirit of Amar Ekushey. The entire fair venue is free from smoking and polythene. [5] It is the cultural reunion of Bangladesh where nearly every writing-related person comes. Attracted by discounted price (25%), readers rush there. Given the importance, generally head of government inaugurates the book fair on the first day of February. TVs make life broadcast of the inaugural ceremony.
Structure
Usually, the fair continues from 1 February to the 28th. It is limited only in Bangla Academy's boundary. The Ministry of Culture is in control of the fair while the Academy does the ground work. Usually the Prime Minister (or the Chief Adviser in case of Caretaker government) inaugurates the fair. Between 300 and 400 publishing houses takes part. Only the Bangladeshi booksellers can join who have at least 25 books of their own. There is Nazrul Manch, a corner dedicated to poet Kazi Nazrul Islam; a fixed place for month-long cultural meetings, a Lekhok Kunjo, a dedicated place for writers and, also, a media center for the journalists. Now a days it became harder to accommodate the huge crowd and the increasing number of publishers. In 2008, the theme of daily conference is 'Bengali Literature and Culture - Achievement of three decades'.
Ekushey Boi Mela 2010
Ekushey Boi Mela 2010 was held from 1st to 29 February 2010. As many as 288 publishers participated in the fair. A record number of books were published on the occasion. According to official statistics, the number of books published in connection with the book fair was 2578. The sale proceeds from books sold shot up to a record of Taka 200 million
