Unfinished stalls mar Boi Mela's allure
Bookworms rummage through titles to find their choices on the second day of Amar Ekushey Boi Mela at Bangla Academy premises in the city yesterday.Photo: STAR
The festivity and momentum of Amar Ekushey Boi Mela was marred yesterday, a day after its inauguration, as some stalls remained empty or incompletely decorated, leaving many of the booklovers flocking to the city's Bangla Academy irked. Around 25 stalls were found empty while decorators were seen giving last minute touches to some stalls in and outside the fair premises. “Those receiving stall allocations were asked to complete decorations within February 1. But some of them could not follow the directions. “We asked them to showcase the books in their stalls by tomorrow (today),” said Murshiduddin Anwar, a deputy director of Bangla Academy. Expressing dissatisfaction over the matter, noted human rights activist Sultana Kamal, visiting the fair yesterday, commented, “This book fair is a cherishable event …we need to be much more caring in organising this event.” One visitor, a Dhaka University student, Protik Chakraborti, said, “This failures hampered the fair's beauty.” However, the Bangla Academy authority and the book sellers expressed satisfaction with the overall preparations taken so far and hoped that the month-long festival will satisfy and draw a large number of bookworms. Yesterday, scores of people of all ages thronged the fair. The presence of a large number of children with their parents was noticeable. The gathering started getting thick with the passage of time, especially after sunset, when it was almost overflowing. “Compared to that of last year's, presence of people and sale is satisfactory on the second day,” said Abdus Salam, a representative of Nazrul Institute's stall. “We sold books worth Tk 11 lakh last year. We hope to reach Tk 15 lakh this year,” he added. Other stall representatives said most visitors are now just browsing through the books and only a few are buying. They expect sales to rise soon. A total of 42 new titles hit the fair yesterday covering a wide range of forms including poems, novels and autobiographies based on history, theatre, politics and science fiction.
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