Dipan Nandy

After the entrance of the fair was opened at 11:00am for “Shishu Prohor” (Children’s Hour) on the second last Friday of this year’s Amar Ekushey Boi Mela, the fair saw an increasing number of sales -- continuing till the closure at 9:00pm. The fair ground was flooded with a sea of book-lovers, none of whom seemed to return empty handed.

Twelve-year-old Namira has never seen light in her entire life. Nor has she seen colours, alphabets or the faces of her loved ones. However, her

A tour of the ongoing Amar Ekushey Boi Mela held across Bangla Academy and Suhrawardy Udyan premises is a sight to behold. Along the ornately designed stalls and pavilions of the fair, the fair has more than 50 biographies on offer, according to the academy.

With so many books and stalls to peruse over, attracting visitors is imperative for publications. For that reason, big publications have come up with distinct ways to entice readers.

The duration of this year’s Amar Ekushey Boi Mela has been extended by another 17 days, as per the directives of the state minister for culture. Instead of today, the fair will now end on March 17, bringing the total duration of its run-time to 31 days -- the longest in the history.

The first 12 days of the fair have seen the publication of 1,361 new books till yesterday. As always, poetry books are at the forefront. As of yesterday, 394 poetry books have been published in the fair.

As per tradition, “Shishu Prahor” was set to be held on the first Friday of Amar Ekushey Boi Mela. But due to the pandemic, it was held yesterday instead, on the 10th day of the fair. The fair ground was packed with children of all ages, who visited with their parents.

For the last three years, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman has been given special prominence at Amar Ekushey Boi Mela. With his birth centenary and the golden jubilee of Bangladesh’s independence being celebrated across the country, a fraction of those sentiments have reached this year’s book fair too.

The last time Humayun Ahmed visited Amar Ekushey Boi Mela was in 2011. In 2012, as that year’s fair was going on, he was in New York for cancer treatment, before dying later in July.

Buildings on either side of Satmasjid Road between Jigatala and Shankar in the capital’s Dhanmondi are teeming with signs and hoardings of different sizes and colours, mostly in English.

The bloodstains on the streets were still fresh. All of East Pakistan was boiling over the massacre of February 21. In a spontaneous move, students of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) built the city’s first Shaheed Minar to immortalise the martyrs.

As scores of people placed floral wreaths on the pedestal of Central Shaheed Minar yesterday, they also thronged the nearby Ekushey book fair, which commemorates the sacrifice made in 1952 through literature.

On February 4, 1952, an announcement was made from Dhaka Medical College Hospital’s Bel Tala for the general strike on February 21. From the get go, the strike started gaining mass engagement. Seeing this, the then Pakistan government felt compelled to declare a Section 144 in Dhaka.

On the day before February 21, there was an onrush at the Amar Ekushey Boi Mela yesterday to find books on the Language Movement. From visitors’ enthusiasm to publisher’s marketing, books on the topic took up the fair grounds since morning.

Over the years, Aparajeyo Bangla and Kala Bhaban have become enduring symbols of Dhaka University. Before the ‘60s, the same spot housed a residential area for government staffers, known as Nilkhet Barrack.

Besides being a place to buy and sell books, the Boi Mela is also where readers get to meet and greet their favourite writers. While the more popular authors attract bigger crowds to their publishers’ stalls and pavilions with an appearance, for more obscure authors, this is the chance for them to get acquainted with their readers.

Right after February 21, tension spread throughout East Bengal. Faced with repressive policing and torture, the Language Movement started to get deflated. But even then, some of its organisers remained steadfast, and it was one residence in the capital’s Shantinagar that gave them the space needed to re-organise.

While the first two days of the Amar Ekushey Boi Mela saw a good number of visitors, the third saw another early success for the fair, as publishers reported good sales figures.

Boi Mela is an open invitation to all. It’s not just a mere book fair, rather it’s a cultural phenomenon -- where people of all ages spend the day with their loved ones, hopping from one book stall to another.

Capital Press and Pioneer Press -- two names that carry significant historical value when it comes to the Language Movement.