Sheikh Iraj

Ekushey Book Fair, or Amar Ekushey Boimela, is in its final week. The annual fair, held at the Bangla Academy and Suhrawardy Udyan premises, is dedicated to the language martyrs who sacrificed their lives on February 21, 1952 for Bangla, our mother language.
People from all over the country come to Dhaka to participate in the month-long fair, which is the largest of its kind in our country. For book lovers and writers, the fair is a wonderful platform where they can interact and engage in healthy discussions on our present literary scene.
“I have come from Chittagong to visit the Ekushey Book Fair. I am visiting the fair for one day only, I have come in the morning and I will return home tonight. I have bought some books for myself and some for my friends,” a visitor, Mohammad Yasin Arafat, told this correspondent during a recent visit to the fair. “For the past four years, I have been regularly coming here and I never miss the opportunity to buy books by my favourite authors. I love reading books and I like to take autographs of my favourite writers. When I first started to visit the fair, many of my friends didn’t find the idea that interesting. Now, things have changed as many of them are planning to visit the fair with me from next year,” he added.
This year, there are 649 stalls, and 410 publishing houses are attending the fair. One of the main attractions at the fair is electronic books. There are three e-book stalls and all of them are receiving overwhelming response from visitors, especially students and young readers. Many parents were seen buying e-books for their children.
“I am a student of Dhaka University and I have come here with my friends. Since the fair takes place near our campus, we normally visit it every day,” said Faizul Islam, a student. “I like to read all kinds of books, particularly detective novels. I like the idea that there is a separate children’s book corner at the fair. We have visited the e-book stalls and some of my friends have brought some e-books as well. I think e-books are going to become quite popular among youths, simply because they offer a whole range of options that paper books don’t,” he added.
Bengal eBoi is offering 350 e-books, and it is giving away 50 e-book titles free of cost. The price of the e-books starts from Tk 30. Many young book enthusiasts visiting the stall were very curious to know about e-books, how they work, how to buy them, etc.
“The process to buy e-books is very simple. All one has to do is go online, download an application and install it, then in exchange for a certain amount of money, you purchase the book you like,” said Lisenda Halson, brand executive at Bengal eBoi. Readers can also buy e-books through mobile banking.
Prasenjit Deb, communication officer of Sheiboi, told Y&I: “Sheiboi is a mobile application that you have to download from Google Play Station. We are offering about a thousand e-book titles and we are giving classic books for free. For books for which publishers don’t have to pay any royalties, we normally consider them as classic books. We have books of all genres and our children’s book section is receiving very good response, compared to previous years. The price of e-books in our stall starts from taka five. The e-books can be purchased through mobile banking, with debit and credit cards, or prepaid scratch cards. We are the only stall at the fair that has these many payment services available for the customers. We are only featuring books by writers who have written at least one book before this book fair. It takes three to five seconds to download one of our books, and after downloading, one can read it offline as well.”
Another company, Boighor, is offering 450 e-book titles for readers. Out of those, 100 are free for download, while it costs Tk 10 to purchase one.
“There are still a lot of writers who do not have  clear idea about e-books, and we hope in future, they will convert some of their paper books into e-books,” Ashraf Shafi, marketing executive of Boighor, told Y&I.
It is true that e-books are becoming more and more popular, yet many writers don’t feel the need to convert their printed books into electronic versions.
Mamun Sarwar, a writer, told this correspondent: “I write children’s books and a few years ago, two publishers wanted to convert some of my paper books into e-books. I agreed and signed a contract with them, but they didn’t contact me after that. That is why I have lost interest in e-books. Also, there are some popular writers, like Amirul Islam, who didn’t give permission, but there are rumours that his books are available in some ebook stores. I think some writers, like me, are not convinced yet that we will get royalty even if we give permission for converting our books.”     
Besides printed books, interactive books are also becoming quite popular among children and their parents. Some teachers even encourage their students to buy interactive books, which come with pop-ups, audiovisual CDs or QR codes. These books can be used as study material for children. They help children to learn and generate creative ideas.
“We are offering interesting interactive books for children. We have created some animation in Bangla through which students can study poetry and learn about different historical places of our country.  Of course, we are running a business, but we want to teach and entertain children at the same time. For that reason, we have made some CDs that can be used as study material for children. We have 89 books in our stall,” said Mohammad Belal Hossain, an executive at Tonatuni Publication.
Rumana Sharmin, owner of Da Pop-up Factory, added: “We create and publish interactive books for children. We have different kinds of books; some are pick-a-book, mix-and-match, pop-up and lift-the-flap. We are receiving good response from the readers, but we are not sure if we will make some profit or not. Interactive books are quite new in our country and they are a little bit expensive than regular paper books. Such types of books are really popular in Western countries, and we are hoping they will become more popular in our country soon. Right now, we have 17 titles to offer our readers, but before the end of the fair, we will have three more new books.”
Anjuman Ara, who was visiting the fair with her 12-year-old daughter, said she wants her child to concentrate more on paper books. “I want her to buy books _ whatever type of books she wants. We also visited the e-book stores. But my daughter is in class 6 now, and I don’t want her to use a mobile phone before she passes HSC exams. I would also like her to concentrate more on paper books and on her studies at the moment. That is why we didn’t buy any e-books. Of course, I am thinking of visiting the fair again with my husband and he might buy some e-books.”
Meanwhile, the organisers have taken steps to beef up security at the fair venue. Jalal Ahamed, member secretary, Ekushey Book Fair, told this correspondent: “For us, security is a major issue. We want to make sure that nothing untoward happens, and the law enforcement agencies are helping us in that field.”
“We have tried to arrange the book fair to the best of our ability. This year, we have a book launching zone, where writers can present their new books. For the first time, Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation has opened a food stall where people can have snacks for a reasonable price. We have also made more sitting arrangements,” Ahamed added.
But some visitors were not entirely satisfied with the security measures. Mohammad Abdul Bashar, who was visiting the fair with his daughter, said: “I thought the security at the book fair would be stricter, but that was not the case. Both my daughter and I had bags with us, but they didn’t check any of them at the Suhrawardy Udyan entrance.”
On the whole, this year’s book fair can be termed as a tech savvy and youth-centric fair. At a time when reading habits are on the wane, such modern initiatives from the publishers to draw young crowds deserve applause.

Photos: File