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Valentine’s, Falgun add cheerful colour to Ekushey book fair


Published : 14 Feb 2020 09:07 PM | Updated : 07 Sep 2020 07:02 PM

With sweet fragrance of Spring in the air, Valentine's Day and Pohela Falgun together brought cheerful color, feelings, hearty expression of love among the bookworms, particularly for youths and couples as they flocked today to the book fair wearing colorful panjabee and sarees and other traditional dresses.

The Amar Ekushey Granthamela- 2020 yesterday attracted a large number of visitors as the month-long mega exposition is displaying books of different genres of literature and other areas of knowledge. With huge enthusiasm and curiosity, thousands of visitors of all ages flocked to different stalls and pavilions to find out books of their beloved writers. Many of the female visitors wore flower crowns and red saris, bringing a festive look to the fair. Since the beginning, long queues were built up in front of every entry point like any weekend days. Most of the visitors were young and teenagers donning colourful attires.

Book-lovers set aside their busy schedules to spend time together, chat, and take photos on the day of love, whether alone, as a couple, or with family members. The fair venue turned into a breathing space in the city of concrete, giving the teeming visitors a break from their urban lives.

The stall attendants were seen busy dealing with the visitors and big smiles flashed on the faces of the publishers as a good number of crowds thronged to different stalls and pavilions. Sadiya Akter, a student of Jagannath University, was seen visiting the book fair with a group of friends wearing festive attires.

“Book fair is a place to get together. We usually come here to purchase books, have fun and meet with friends,” said a cheerful Sadiya, surrounded by her friends. Dhaka University student Ashraful Huq Ishtiak, who came with one of his friends, said, ‘We have not come to buy books, but to meet friends on the fair premises.’

The fair premises at Bangla Academy and Suhrawardy Udyan witnessed the highest number of new arrivals so far — 1182 titles — on the day. Rodhela Islam, a student of Jagannath University was seen visiting the book fair with a group of friends wearing festive attires.
Rodhela said, "February is the month of emotion for us. In one side, we have our traditional festival Pahela Falgun. On the other hand, we have 21 February, the International Mother Language Day."

"Both of the days have a bearing with our emotion," she said adding that, while visiting the Dhaka University campus with friends to celebrate the occasion, they came to the fair to pay a visit. Shamim Ibrahim, a medical student at the fair with his friends, told The Bangladesh Post, “I enjoyed a lot this atmosphere as Pohela Falgun and Valentine’s Day turned the fair as a venue of get-together, and fun with friend,”.

There are strict security arrangements in and around the book fair venue to avert any unpleasant incident during the fair. Necessary security arrangements have already been made with the installation of huge closed-circuit camera televisions (CCTVs) in and around the Bangla Academy complex. The law enforcers have been deployed in large numbers to ensure foolproof security.

Since the beginning, long queues built up in front of every entry point like any weekend days. Most of the visitors were young people and teenagers donning colourful attires. This year Bangla Academy has set the theme of the fair as “Birth Centenary of Bangabandhu” dedicated to the iconic leader, marking his birth centenary.

The authorities have allotted 179 units at the Bangla Academy ground to 126 organizations and 694 at the Suhrawardy Udyan to 434 organizations and a total of 34 pavilions have been allocated this year. The fair will remain open from 3pm to 9pm from Sundays to Thursdays; and from 11am to 9pm on Fridays and Saturdays. On February 21, the fair will remain open from 8am to 8pm.

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 set up 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 people who laid down their lives on February 21, 1952 for establishing Bangla as mother tongue.