Dipan Nandy

For the last three years, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman has been given special prominence at Amar Ekushey Boi Mela. With his birth centenary and the golden jubilee of Bangladesh’s independence being celebrated across the country, a fraction of those sentiments have reached this year’s book fair too.

The last time Humayun Ahmed visited Amar Ekushey Boi Mela was in 2011. In 2012, as that year’s fair was going on, he was in New York for cancer treatment, before dying later in July.

The bloodstains on the streets were still fresh. All of East Pakistan was boiling over the massacre of February 21. In a spontaneous move, students of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) built the city’s first Shaheed Minar to immortalise the martyrs.

As scores of people placed floral wreaths on the pedestal of Central Shaheed Minar yesterday, they also thronged the nearby Ekushey book fair, which commemorates the sacrifice made in 1952 through literature.

Buildings on either side of Satmasjid Road between Jigatala and Shankar in the capital’s Dhanmondi are teeming with signs and hoardings of different sizes and colours, mostly in English.

On February 4, 1952, an announcement was made from Dhaka Medical College Hospital’s Bel Tala for the general strike on February 21. From the get go, the strike started gaining mass engagement. Seeing this, the then Pakistan government felt compelled to declare a Section 144 in Dhaka.

On the day before February 21, there was an onrush at the Amar Ekushey Boi Mela yesterday to find books on the Language Movement. From visitors’ enthusiasm to publisher’s marketing, books on the topic took up the fair grounds since morning.

Over the years, Aparajeyo Bangla and Kala Bhaban have become enduring symbols of Dhaka University. Before the ‘60s, the same spot housed a residential area for government staffers, known as Nilkhet Barrack.

Besides being a place to buy and sell books, the Boi Mela is also where readers get to meet and greet their favourite writers. While the more popular authors attract bigger crowds to their publishers’ stalls and pavilions with an appearance, for more obscure authors, this is the chance for them to get acquainted with their readers.

Right after February 21, tension spread throughout East Bengal. Faced with repressive policing and torture, the Language Movement started to get deflated. But even then, some of its organisers remained steadfast, and it was one residence in the capital’s Shantinagar that gave them the space needed to re-organise.

While the first two days of the Amar Ekushey Boi Mela saw a good number of visitors, the third saw another early success for the fair, as publishers reported good sales figures.

Boi Mela is an open invitation to all. It’s not just a mere book fair, rather it’s a cultural phenomenon -- where people of all ages spend the day with their loved ones, hopping from one book stall to another.

Capital Press and Pioneer Press -- two names that carry significant historical value when it comes to the Language Movement.

There was no way to understand that it was just the second day of the Amar Ekushey Boi Mela yesterday. Not even a weekend afternoon, the

On February 21, 1952, the protesters had two programmes to press home their demand for Bangla as a state language. One, the section 144 had to go, and two, taking a memorial plaque to the East Pakistan Ain Parishad.

Becharam Dewri. The name itself comes with the fragrance of various kinds of biriyani, all of which taste different too.

The Amar Ekushey Boi Mela kicked off yesterday afternoon amid much fanfare.

The Amar Ekushey Boi Mela begins today with preparations still unfinished till yesterday afternoon.

Even before the establishment of Pakistan in 1947, Rasheed Building hosted the Suruj Jamal mess on its first floor. During the early days of the Language Movement, numerous organising activities were carried out from there.

There’s a message floating in the air. Those who can read it know that spring is already here.