Aglow with Ekushey spirit
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.
Many tagged along with their family and friends, adorned in black and white clothes with Bangla alphabets printed on top. Faces of little ones were seen covered in the alphabets too.
The spirit of Ekushey was emphasised further by the music playing on speakers and speeches from the stage.
Yesterday was the fair's longest day, opening from 8:00am and continuing all till 9:00pm. Throughout this period, there were long queues at the gates.However, all this did not translate into great sales for the publishers.
Monirul Haque, proprietor of Ananya, said, "But this is not a problem. February 21 is more about carrying on the spirit of Ekushey."Pushing through the crowd, Rajendra Ghosh and Sheuli Ghoshen from Laxmibazar could be seen with two daughters Hridita and Pratiksha. Hridita bought Humayun Ahmed's "Best of Misir Ali", Imdadul Haque Milon's "Best Ten Novels" and Zaheer Raihan's novel "Arek Falgun", while little Pratiksha bought a book on birds.
Pratiksha said she was ecstatic as she also got a tattoo as a gift for buying the book.
A total of 303 new books were published yesterday.
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