Book Fair an inspiration to readers

Dr Md Mahmudul Hassan :
The Ekushey book fair is celebrated every year in Bangla Academy with the spirit of 21st February as the great language movement. Earlier, the fair was held in the academy premises. The history of the book fair is very interesting. Firstly, it was started in 1965 and later the fiction writer Sardar Zainuddin got curious about it after reading a book called ‘Wonderful World of Books’. He realized that there are many fairs being held, so why not book fair? He organized a book fair for children in front of the Dhaka University Library in 1965 when he was the director of the National Book Centre. But he could not be completely satisfied with it. In 1970, he again organized a book fair there with the help of Narayanganj Club and found many books sold.
When UNESCO declared the year 1972 as the Year of Books, he again organized a book fair at the Bangla Academy premises that year. However, the tradition of the February Book Fair began with the initiative, enthusiasm and activity of Chittaranjan Saha, the founder of Muktdhara. He started the fair in front of Borhdoman House of Bangla Academy on February 8, 1972. Until 1976 he held the book fair alone. Then other publishing houses started joining the fair. In 1978, the then Director General of Bangla Academy Dr Ashraf Siddiqui associated Bangla Academy with the Book Fair. In 1979 Bangladesh Book Publishers and Sellers Association was associated with the fair. In 1983, the then Director General of Bangla Academy Manjur – e – Mawla named the fair as Amar Ekushey Granth Mela.
Since 1984, this fair has been held magnificently. Now this fair has expanded so broadly that the entire Suhrawardy Udyan has been turned into a fair. A huge number of books are published in the fair every year and many new authors and publishers emerge. Different classes of readers come to the fair. Parents take their children to the fair with great enthusiasm and buy books. From the perspective of history and tradition, it has been seen that this book fair has emerged in the world to increase the number of book readers and to create reading habits among all. The biggest reason behind organizing these book fairs nationally and regionally every year is; to increase interest in reading books among students, teachers and parents, to create up-to-date books by creating attention to research and to encourage publishers to publish books.
Recently, a USA based organization named “Global English Editing” surveys the reading habits of people in different countries every year. According to that survey, neighboring Indians are taking a place in the world as a book-reading nation. Indian people have been mentioned in the list of top book reading nations for two consecutive years. They spend 10 hours 42 minutes a week reading books. The next position is Thailand. They spent 9 hours 24 minutes a week reading books. China is in the third position. They spend 8 hours a week reading books.
Rabindranath Tagore said, ‘Man links past and future with books.’ Sidney Smith said – ‘No piece of furniture in the house is as beautiful as books.’ Leo Tolstoy said about books, ‘There are only three things needed in life: books, books and books.’ Pramath Chowdhury’s quote – ‘No one goes bankrupt by buying books’ means buy as many books as you can. Ibsen rightly said, ‘He who has a library in his house is great in mental richness.’ Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, not only reads about Microsoft, but is also called a bookworm. He reads 50 books a year. Every year he encourages reading of the 10 best books in his view in his ‘Gate’s Notes’. World leaders like Warren Buffett, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Xi Jinping also read book regularly.
As Bangladeshis, we have poor interest in reading books. Ekushe Book Fair, Islami Foundation Book Fair, National Library Book Fair etc. are organized every year as an opportunity. We have to use this opportunity. All the teachers, researchers and intellectuals of the country should come forward and create a mass awakening to create readership and reading habits. Only then we can expect people will be enlightened, the country will move forward and this arrangement of the book fair will be beneficial.

(The writer is Principal, Daffodil International School).