Curtain goes up on the Amar Ekushey Book Fair 2011, on the Bangla Academy premises today to showcase a month-long festival commemorating the historic language movement of 1952.
The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, will inaugurate the annual event, organised by the Bangla Academy and the Bangladesh Book Publishers and Sellers’ Association, at 3:30pm. Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen is expected to take the spotlight as the guest of honour in the opening ceremony to be presided over by national professor Kabir Chowdhury, also president of Bangla Academy. Information and cultural affairs minister Abul Kalam Azad will be present.
Bangla Academy director general Shamsuzzaman Khan, at a briefing on Monday announced the programmes chalked up on the occasion.
He said that special security measures had been taken for the fair this year.
e called on all concerned, including cultural organisations, to extend their cooperation in holding the fair in a befitting manner. Bangladesh Television will broadcast live the inaugural ceremony.
The area for Amar Ekushey Book Fair stretches beyond the Bangla Academy compound, with about 100 stalls set up along the pavements on Nazrul Islam Avenue in front of the academy, as construction of the new administrative building and an auditorium has shrunk the open space inside the academy.
The DG said that four archways had been set up at the two entrances, one in front of the Atomic Energy Commission and the other in front of the Institute of Food and Nutrition of Dhaka University, for security checks. Closed-circuit television cameras have been installed on the compound.
Plainclothesmen will assist the police and the Rapid Action Battalion personnel in maintaining security at the fair which has been declared a no smoking zone.
Bangla Academy will organise a series of seminars on the life and works of poet Rabindranath Tagore marking the 150th anniversary of his birth.
Organisers have completed all preparations for the month-long fair and publishers have readied their stalls to display books ranging from children’s classics to novel, poetry and fiction, essays and research works.
The academy will also inaugurate the Jatiya Sahitya O Lekhak Jadughar, set up on the ground floor of the historic Burdwan House building, displaying documents, graphics and other articles on the evolution of Bangla language and literature and l manuscripts and portraits of eminent writers, including Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Dr Muhammad Shahidullah and some personal belongings of Shamsur Rahman and Sufia Kamal.
BRAC Bank sponsors this year’s book fair the total budget for which has been estimated at Tk 35 lakh. Step Media Ltd is responsible for making and decorating stalls and other facilities at the book fair.
The fair committee so far finalised the allotment of 556 stalls to 367 socio- cultural organisations and publishers.
A separate space has been earmarked behind the Nazrul Mancha as writers’ corner.
This will be the 37th book fair since the country’s pioneer publisher, Chittaranjan Saha, launched it in 1972 on the academy premises.
The book fair will remain open for the visitors from 3:00pm to 9:00pm daily and from 11:00am to 9:00am on holidays. On the 21st February, the fair will remain open from 8:00am to 10:00pm.
