Unsatisfactory turnout at Dhaka Int’l Book fair ‘09

The book fair featured 169 stalls, including two publication houses from overseas.Photo: STAR

The two-week long Dhaka International Book Fair 2009 at Suhrawardi Udyan ends today. National Book Centre and the Ministry of Cultural Affairs jointly organised the fair, which began on December 11. The fair, largest after the Ekushey Book Fair, featured a total 169 stalls giving the visitors an opportunity to choose from a lot. This year two publication houses from overseas -- National Book Trust, India and Al Huda International Publication, Iran participated at the event.
"This fair is an annual event. The main purpose of holding this fair is to promote books among the masses and to encourage them to develop reading habits," said Suhita Sultana, assistant director, National Book Centre.
This theme of this year's book fair is: "Books for Change."
"We hope that such events will provide the local readers with an opportunity to check out foreign publications," Sultana added.
Apart from books, added attractions at the fair are discussions and cultural programmes. The discussions were attended by leading experts and intellectuals. So far the fair featured discussions on folk, the future of the publication industry of Bangladesh, copyright issues and more.
On December 23, a discussion on 'Pancho Kabir Gaan' (song of the five poets -- Rabindranath, Nazrul, Rajnikant, Atul Prasad and D.L. Roy) was held at the fair premises. Professor Karunamaya Goswami was the main discussant at the event. Mita Haque, Lily Islam, Shahid Kabir Polash and Azizur Rahman Tuhin performed songs of the five poets at the programme.
According to the booksellers, the turnout, however, was not as high as they had expected.
"For a book fair of this magnitude the turnout is not satisfactory. We expected more visitors," said Amjad Hossain, a vendor at the Oitijhya stall.
"One of the main reasons behind the inadequate turnout can be attributed to the lack of publicity. The organisers could have taken better initiatives for publicity of the fair, people simply don't know that this fair is being held!" Amjad Hossain added.
Another seller Omar Faruk, at The Sky Publishers stall, said, "Each year the fair is held at a different venue, so people actually do not know where this event is being held. I have seen no effort to publicise the fair."
Calling the ticket system "an obstacle", Rafiqul Islam at the Tamrolipi stall said, "Even the Ekushey Book Fair is open to all! All book fairs should be open to all!" The organisers are charging Taka 5 for entry at the fair.
Similar views were shared at stalls of Ankur Publications, Shahitya Prokash, The Royal Publishers, Shahitya Katha and more.
The booksellers also suggested maintaining a gap of at least six months between the Ekushey Book Fair and the International Book Fair.
Even though majority of the vendors were disappointed, stalls offering books and other items for children and adolescents had a different view.
Naqibul Hassan of Panjeri Publications said, "There seems to be a good demand for comic books among the young visitors. Comic books such as 'Basic Ali', 'Laily' as well as 'Stories of Birbal', 'Molla Nasiruddin' and 'Gopal Bhar' sold well."
"Mohammad Zafar Iqbal's 'Meyetir Naam Narina', a novel for adolescents, is selling quite well at the fair," said Md. Faruk Hossain of Pearl Publication.
About the fair, Bratin Dey, assistant editor of National Book Trust from India, said, "We have noticed a growing popularity of Indian books among the Bangladeshi readers. At this fair we are not selling books. We are only displaying our books to inform the people of the latest Indian publications."
"The response from the people has been very positive. NBT is an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, India. NBT will be holding the New Delhi World Book Fair, from January 30 to February 7, 2010. Publication houses from all over the world will be participating at the fair," Dey informed.
The Al Huda International Publication stall featured Iranian publications on Imam Khomeini, Islamic Calligraphy and other subjects.
Another stall featuring Iranian books were set up by the office of the Cultural Counsellor, Embassy of Iran in Dhaka. The stall featured translations of Iranian and Islamic books.
Today the fair opens at 11 am. The closing ceremony will be held at 4:30 pm. Promod Mankin, State Minister for Cultural Affairs, is expected to be present as the chief guest.