Crowd gets bigger at book fair

Monowarul Islam was looking at the books in the stalls at Suhrawardy Udyan. He suddenly stopped in front of  Anyaprokash and picked up Humayun Ahmed's "Badshah Namdar".

"A lot of new books have arrived. I love going from stall to stall to check them out. My favourite writer is Humayun Ahmed, and I collect his books whenever I can," he said.

On the sixth day of the Amar Ekushey Boi Mela yesterday, 121 new books came out. Since the second day, a total of 424 new books have arrived.

At the end of the weekly holidays on Friday and Saturday, the fair premises were full of visitors, buyers, writers and readers.

Milan Nath, publisher of Anupam Prakashani, said, "The design of Boi Mela is comparatively better than last year's. Lots of new books have arrived. But due to the increase in the price of paper and publishing materials, I think the total number of books is decreasing."

Meanwhile, on Saturday, State Minister for Cultural Affairs KM Khalid, along with the taskforce committee, visited the pavilion and stalls. During the visit, the state minister gave some instructions to the taskforce on different issues on the fair premises and its food zones.

Among the instructions were -- emergency repair of the road next to the Shishu Chattar, removal of water from the information centre and the stalls where water accumulates from TSC to Doyel Chattar, ensure adequate lighting facilities for the safety and security of visitors, among others.