Staff correspondent
Around 3,760 bags of blood, 30,000 signs in favour of the trial of war criminals were collected till Tuesday at the Amar Ekushey book fair while a campaign against household torture on women is also going on the fair premises.
On the 24th day of the month-long annual event organised by the Bangla Academy, a large crowd and high sale of books were witnessed.
The young readers thronged the book stall of Anya Prakash with popular writer Humayun Ahmed giving autographs to his fans.
A total four stalls are collecting blood from the willing donors who are visiting book fair. Quantum Foundation has collected around 1,950 bags of blood from the fair so far. They collected 3,256 in 2007 and 3,203 bags in 2008 after they started collecting blood on the fair premises in 2001.
The Bangladesh Redcresent Society has collected about 1430 bags of blood from the fair. They started blood collection at the fair in 1980 while the Life Save Blood Bank and Transfusion Medicine Centre has started their collection this year and collected about 380 bags of blood.
The Bangla Blogger Community is collecting signs in favour of the trial of the war criminals in the Bangladesh at the book fair and so far 30,000 signs were collected.
Several groups of Narre Maitree and Family Ties are conducting a campaign against household torture on women.
After a dull day, the fair witnessed a large number of visitors with only three day left of the fair. Most of the visitors were seen buying books from different stalls. A number of visitors were also found buying books from the footpath stalls.
‘I have bought new titles from the fair and now taking some titles from the footpath because they are less costly while the same titles cost all most double at the fair stalls.’ Asim, coming from Gophibagh of the city, said.
Meanwhile popular writer Humayun Ahmed visited the fair under police protection. Humayun reached at the fair at around 5:00pm and stayed couple of hours in the Anya Prakash stall and gave autographs to his titles bought his fans, especially school, college and university students.
Azim, a Khulna University student waiting for Humayun Ahmed for about one hour, said, ‘I like him and his writings. I came to know that he will come to the fair today. So, I am waiting for his autograph and to watch him from a close distance.’
Humayun Ahmed is expected to visit fair today also and will stay at the stall of Anwesha.
At least 89 new titles hit the fair on the day, while the academy information centre reported the arrival of 85 titles including 19 books of poems, 10 of stories, seven titles for children, seven collections of essays, six books on liberation war followed by six novels.
Eighteen new titles were launched at the fair venue on the 24th day of the fair.
The Bangla Academy arranged a cultural function which drew a large crowd. Citi-Ananda Alo Literary Prize 2009 organised by Ananda Alo will be distributed today at the fair.
Courtesy of www.newagebd.com
