Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday lamented her inability to roam around the Ekushey Book Fair freely, saying she is now living some sort of a ‘captive life’.

"When I was not in power, I used to come at the book fair and roam around freely. But now, I’m living some sort of a captive life. I don’t have the scope to come here. If I want to come here it causes problems for others due to the security reasons. Considering people’s sufferings, I’ve to suppress my desire to come here but in reality, my heart always lies here," she said.

Sheikh Hasina was addressing a programme marking the inauguration of the month-long Amar Ekushey Grantha Mela-2019 on the Bangla Academy premises and at adjoining Suhrawardy Udyan in the city.

The theme of this year’s book fair is ‘Bijoy: 1952 to 1971 Ebong Naboporjay’.

The Prime Minister said the book fair is not a place for just selling and buying books. "We think this book fair is the fair of life for the Bangalees," she said.

Putting emphasis on knowing the history by the new generation, she said the people of the country had earned the independence and right to speak in their mother tongue through huge sacrifices and struggles.

"The history of Bangalees is the history of sacrifice, and all of our achievements have been attained through that sacrifice," Hasina said.

She also gives importance to translating local and international literature books for knowing the world literature and letting others to know the Bangladeshi one. "To know the world literature, it’s urgently needed to do the transliteration."

The Prime Minister also said although the world is advancing fast and books are now very much available in digital format, the attraction of hard books will never end. “The joy of turning book pages is something else. It can’t be compared with anything else."

She, however, underscored the need for establishing a digital library for accessing any book from any part of the world.

Two foreign guests -- Indian poet Shankha Ghosh and Egyptian writer and poet Mohsin Al Arishi -- graced the opening ceremony and spoke as distinguished foreign guests. Due to the illness and as advised by doctors, the speech of Shankha Ghosh was read out by Ramendu Majumder.

State Minister for Cultural Affairs KM Khalid attended the opening ceremony as a special guest while Bangla Academy Director General poet Habibullah Siraji delivered the welcome speech with its President Professor Emeritus Anisuzzaman in the chair. 

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also distributed the Bangla Academy Sahitya Puroshkar-2018 at the opening ceremony.

Four writers and researchers won the award this time. The award winners are Poet Kazi Rosy for poetry, Mohit Kamal for literature, Syed Mohammad Shahed for essay and research and Afsan Chowdhury for research on Liberation War.  The winners received a cheque of Tk 2 lakh each at the programme.

 

Sheikh Hasina also unveiled a book titled 'Secret Documents of Intelligence Branch on Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman' (Volume -2) at the opening ceremony.

Later, Hasina went round different stalls at the book fair.

Seminars will be held at the main stage of the fair venue at 4pm every day from February 2 to 28 followed by cultural events.

Like the previous years, the venue of the fair was extended to nearby Suhrawardy Udyan with huge changes.

This year, the land earmarked for the fair was expanded to 550,000 square feet,  37,000 more than the previous year. A total of 770 units were allocated to 499 organisations

The authorities allotted a total of 150 units at the Bangla Academy ground to 104 organisatons and 620 at the Suhrawardy Udyan to 395 organisations.

Last year, the authorities allotted a total of 719 units - 136 at the Bangla Academy ground to 92 organisatons and 583 at the Suhrawardy Udyan to 363 organisations.

Besides, 24 pavilions have been allocated for 24 publishing houses, including Bangla Academy.

The fair will remain open from 3pm to 9pm (Sunday to Thursday) while it will remain open from 11am to 9pm on weekly holidays. On February 21, the fair will remain open from 8am to 8pm.

The book fair began informally on the Bangla Academy premises in 1972. In 1978, the academy officially took the responsibility of organising the fair every year. It was named Amar Ekushey Grantha Mela in 1984 and a guideline was formulated in the same year. The fair venue was extended to Suhrawardy Udyan in 2013 in a bid to accommodate more publishers and book lovers. UNB