Ekushey Boi Mela

The month-long Amar Ekushey Boi Mela, the largest literary event of the country, ended on February 28 peacefully. A total of 3700 new titles arrived at the Boi Mela this year with 877 poetry books followed by 629 novels, 574 books on stories and 202 volumes of essays.
Last year, 2,959 new books graced the fair while the figure was 3,070 in 2013, 3,669 in 2012, 3,013 in 2011
and 3,354 in 2010.
The total sales are Tk 21.95 crore this year comparing with 16.50 crore in 2014, 10.15 crore in 2013 and Tk 26 crore in 2012.
The Bangla Academy also sold books worth 1.60 crore this year. Last year, the Academy’s turnover was Tk 1.10 crore, Tk 67.40 lakh in 2013 and Tk 82.53 lakh in 2012, Tk 72.83 lakh in 2011, Tk 68.01 lakh in 2010 and Tk 61.60 lakh in 2009.
Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina inaugurate the Boi Mela and opened the four-day International Literary Conference-2015 marking the traditional national event on February 1.
Professor Emeritus Anisuzzaman presided over the function while Cultural Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Noor was present as special guest. Director General of Bangla Academy Shamsuzzaman Khan delivered opening speech while Cultural Affairs Secretary
Dr Ranjit Kumar Biswas made
a goodwill speech.
Bangla Academy honoured seven eminent poets, writers and educationists with Literary Award-2014 for their contributions to various disciplines. Each winner received Tk one lakh in cash, a crest and a certificate from the Prime Minister at the inaugural ceremony of the Ekushey Boi Mela and International Literary Conference. Meanwhile, litterateur Iqbal Hasan and artist Syed Iqbal won the ‘Syed Waliullah Award’ for their contribution to expanding Bengali Literature abroad.
Mowla Brothers got ‘Chittaranjan Saha Award’ for publishing quality books in 2014, Pathok Shomabesh achieved ‘Shaheed Munir Chowdhury Award’ for publishing the Rabindra Samoggra
in 23 parts, Shomoy Prokashon got ‘Rokonuzzaman Khan Dadabhai Memorial Award’ for publishing record books on children literature.
The storybooks of the legends of Bengali literature like Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Sharat Chandra
Chattopadhyaya and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay dominated the Amar Ekushey Boi Mela.
Another surprise of the Boi Mela as a number of books written by the
ministers, including the Prime Minister, are on sale at the Amar Ekushey Boi Mela this year. Of them, ‘Sheikh Mujib Aamar Pita’ a commemorative book written by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
received tremendous response from buyers. The books of Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader,
Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, Information Minister Hasanul Haque Inu and Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon arrived at the Boi Mela were also
on sales at the Boi Mela.
Novel was the top demand to the book lovers at the Amar Ekushey Boi Mela this year. A good number of new novels arrive every day and the selling of the novels is better than other books, publishers said.
Humayun Ahmed was alive in the minds of book lovers as the thousands of people thronged the Boi Mela to buy the books of popular Bengali fiction writer. And so, the sale of Humayun’s books was unbeaten. Humayun created many new readers and took the sector
a long way in the last three decades,
the publishers said.
Meanwhile, the highest number of poems books arrived at the Amar Ekushey Boi Mela this year. But the sale of the
poem books is the lowest. The books of science fiction are popular to the young generation all over the country. The popularity of the science fiction books is increasing in Bangladesh day by day.
This year, the fair featured a total of 11 pavilions of 11 publishers at Shurawardy Udyan for the second time. A total of 565 stalls of 351 organisations comprising 128 stalls on Bangla academy premises and 437 in Suhrawardy Udyan were set up. Among the units, the five units were for Bangla Academy, 44 units for government organisations, 19 for media, 32 for kids, 20 for IT and others for different publication houses and 72 Little
Magazine stalls on the south corner
of Bardhaman House.
It may be mentioned that the Bangla
Academy has been organising the annual book fair since 1984 to commemorate the martyrs of Language Movement, 1952. n