Fair outside Bangla Academy draws crowd

Sales of various goods including flowers, dolls, festoons, paper balloons and food items outside the Bangla Academy premises have added to the flavour of Amar Ekushey Book Fair this year.
A large number of makeshift shops have been set up at roadsides on the Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue outside the periphery of the Ekushey Book Fair and they are selling these items.
Many such shops are selling even daily necessaries in front of the gate of the book fair every day under the nose of the security men just before the fair gate opens.
‘They, however, get a good number of buyers as many visitors like to buy their products rather than books from the fair,’ a policeman said.
A cosmetic seller said, ‘we enjoyed good sales till Wednesday but today police were disturbing them.’ He said women are the main buyers of their products.
Afia Islam, a visitor who came to book fair, was found buying spoons in front of fair gate.
She told reporter that she came to the fair just to visit with her husband. ‘I do not have reading habit so I am buying daily necessaries’, she added.
Some students of the Eden College were also found buying colourful Dot (Teep) in front of book fair gate.
They said they had come to visit the book fair to buy such things. ‘It’s easier to buy things from here than from the New Market,’ Afrin, a student of Eden College, said.
Asad, a plastic doll seller said they are enjoying good sale as dolls made by plastic with cartoon characters are very popular among the kids.
‘Maximum parents with children are buying dolls from us. ‘We have increased the prices of the dolls because of their high demand’, he said.
Roton Sorker, a visitor who came to the fair with his family, said ‘I bought some books of pictures for my son. He is so little to understand the meaning of these pictures so I bought some toys for him’.
Some visitors said presence of makeshift shops is destroying the image of the Ekushey Book Fair.
Aparna Pal, a university student said many beggars are also found here and there. ‘The police should be strict about temporary sellers and beggars,’ he said.
Police sources said they are trying their best to check street sales. We evict the street sellers many times in a day but they set up their shops again.
A total of 114 titles hit the fair on Thursday with collections of poem leading the tally.
The new arrivals included 34 collections of poems 19 novels, 12 collections of stories, nine collections of essays, four books in liberation war and five travelogues.
A seminar on ‘Poems on Ekush’ was held as a part of the month-long programme. Baitullah Qadri read out the keynote paper in the seminar chaired by Asad Choudhury.
Poet Arunav Sarker, Muhammad Samad, Shamim Azad and Nasir Ahmed, among others, addressed the seminar followed by a by a cultural programme.

Courtesy of NewAgebd