Rayhanul Islam :
Spring celebration gave added excitement and colours to Ekushey Book Fair on Wednesday as book lovers, especially youths, traditionally attired in yellowish, converged on the Bangla Academy and Suhrawardy Udyan premises in their thousands.
The book fair remained open from 11 am and scheduled to close at 9 pm. Since the beginning, long queues built up in front of every entry point like any weekend days.
Writer Abdullah Al Imran said, “Every year the book fair turns into an extraordinary place for celebration of Pahela Basanta, the first day of the Bangla month of Falgun.
“It’s really pleasure seeing city dwellers, in colourfull outfit, gathering at the fair premises to great Basanta amid festivity.
Rakibul Hasan a student of Dhaka University said, “It’s a part of our culture and I cannot think of celebrating spring without a visit to the book fair.
The salesmen of different book stores were found extremely busy as they were struggling to manage the huge crowd on the occasion. Readers were found buying poetry books in great numbers.
Sellers said books on science fiction and novel are on high demands too.
Farid Ahmed publisher of Somoy Prokashoni, expressed his satisfaction to the Bangla Academy authority for opening the fair earlier on the day than the regular time, which increased the sales rate.
Nabila Jahan a student of a private university was seen visiting the book fair along with a group of friends wearing festive attires.
Nabila said “February is a month of emotion for the people of our country. In one hand 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 connection 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.”
The fair opens its doors at 3:00pm and continues till 8:30pm everyday.
On holidays, the fair is scheduled to run from 11:00am to 8:30pm. On February 21, however, the fair will open at 8:00am and will continue till 8:30pm.
