Entry ticket for Ekushey Book Fair

---

Asjadul Kibria | Published: January 23, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

---

The annual Bangla Academy book fair, Amar Ekushey Grontho Mela, is knocking at the door. It's a month-long event to celebrate and uphold the spirit of our language movement in 1952. Over the decades, the size of the book fair has grown significantly; and it is at this time of the year the publishers -- small and big - look up to the fair for their titles to attract the book lovers. Writers, too, eagerly wait for the fair as their new books hit the stalls.   
But in terms of business, Ekushey book fair is yet to provide the expected returns to the publishers, let alone the writers. Despite good opportunity for displaying and selling books, the fair fails to attract a large number of potential buyers. Only some big publishers are successful in attaining good returns, while a large majority has to struggle.  
The first book fair in Bangladesh took place in 1965 when the National Book Centre, headed by Sarder Joinuddin, organised a children's book fair at the central public library premises in Dhaka. Following this, Sichuan Pathagar, a local private public library in Narayanganj, organised a weeklong book fair as part of a cultural week on the Narayanganj club premises in 1970. This was actually the first book fair in Bangladesh and Fazle Rabbi, founder of Sudhijan Pathagar, along with his friends took the initiative.
After the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, Bangla Academy initiated to organise an informal book fair on its premises during the month of February. Chitta Ranjan Saha, founder of the renowned Muktodhara publishing house, pioneered to arrange for display and sale of a handful of books on February 21, 1972 on the academy premises. In the years that followed, few other publishers joined him. Later, Bangla Academy gave the fair a formal shape.
The idea behind the book fair was to create a common forum for writers, readers and publishers. It was also expected that such an interaction would enhance book selling and book business in the long run. But, things did not work accordingly although the space for the fair has increased manifold.
To accommodate more publishers, last year the main fair venue has been shifted to Suhrawardy Uddyan, opposite to Bangla Academy, where publishers set up their stalls while the academy's internal premise was kept for children's books, non-commercial publishers and organisations. No doubt, this made the academy premises quite spacious allowing visitors to move easily.
But the fair venue at Suhrawardy Uddyan did not prove conducive to visitors as entry to the premises is troublesome. Visitors have to enter after crossing barriers and makeshift food stalls. The nuisance caused by motor bikers further adds to the problem after dusk. Insufficient lighting also causes problems for the visitors in the evening.
The most flawed part of the book fair is its free entry 'facility'.  Thousands of visitors rush to the fair, and on weekends the situation becomes almost unmanageable. A large number of the visitors are young people, usually students of colleges and universities, who find the fair premise a good spot to hang out, rather than buy books. Gathering of unwanted visitors poses a serious deterrent to ardent book lovers to browse and purchase books of their choice. As a result, the book fair loses a good number of potential customers, although some of them collect books later from shops.
Against the backdrop, the organisers need to take some strong steps like introducing entry tickets. A daily ticket of Tk 10 is not a big deal for any book lover. This, while discouraging casual visitors, will create a conducive atmosphere for the truly book-loving visitors.
It is true that ticketing system is difficult to manage in an open space. Here comes the issue of designing the fair ground. It is the responsibility of the cultural ministry and Bangla Academy to construct a well planned infrastructure for the fair and maintain it. They have to show some realistic attitude to support the publishing industry and the book fair needs to be a real gathering of writers, readers and publishers.  
asjadulk@gmail.com