Staff correspondent
Amar Ekushey book fair started gaining momentum on its 5th day on Thursday with a large number of book lovers visiting the fair at the Bangla Academy. Around 100 new books hit the fair on the day which witnessed long queues at entrances to the fair for the first time in five days.
Publishers are also happy with the day’s sales’ position and salesmen at a good many stalls were found busy managing the buyers.
The fair will remain open exclusively for children from 11:00am to 3:00pm on Friday and Saturday. General visitors will not be allowed to enter the fair during the period dedicated for children.
A male guardian can only accompany a child visitor but there will be no restriction on the number of female guardians at the children’s hours.
‘We have declared children’s hours from 11:00am to 3:00pm on February 6, 7 and 27 to make the habit of book reading for children,’ said Bangla Academy director general Syed Mohammad Shahed.
An art competition for children will begin at 8:00am today. Children in three groups will participate in the competition. Group A will include children aged up to eight years, group B above eight years up to 12 years, and group C above 12 up to 15 years.
The people enjoyed visit to the fair on Thursday as the fair venue was quite free from dust.
Three vigilance teams, inspecting the book fair, are expected to submit their report today to Bangla Academy DG.
Writer Imdadul Haque Milan was found giving autograph to his fans. Two other writers — Anisul Haque and Muhit Kamal — stayed for several hours at Samay Prakashani stall and Biddya Prakash stall respectively.
After drawing this month’s salary, I came straight to book fair to buy some of my favourite titles,’ Abdus Salam, a private bank employee, said.
The new titles, which hit the fair on the 5th day, included 20 novels, 15 collections of short stories and 14 collections of poems and seven collections of juvenile stories. Five books were launched at the Lekhak Kunja (writers’ corner).
Pathsutro, a publishing house, announced first-book author prize at the fair on Thursday. Oro Hawai Ajanay by Shiddhartha Tipu from Patsutro won this year’s prize.
The academy held a seminar on agriculture, a part of series of lectures on Prospective Bangladesh being held every day.
Shaikh Siraj read out the keynote paper at the seminar attended by Jahangir Alam, Md Abdur Rahaman Sarker and Ferdousi Begum. The seminar was followed by a cultural function.
The academy will hold two seminars on music and dance and recitation programme today.
Karuna Goswami and Golam Sarwar will read out the keynote papers respectively. Laila Hasan, Kazi Arif, Mridul Kanti Chakrabartti and Shahadat Hossain Nipu will took part in the discussion.
Mobarak Hossain Khan will preside over the seminar to be followed by a cultural programme.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
