Curtain fell for this year's Ekushey Book Fair. To me, without any intention to hurt anyone, the peerless event lost its spirit many years ago. An event that has the potential to become beacon of Bengali culture trapped itself into the narrow interest of protectionism.
It is a pity that we failed miserably to use this grand event as a platform to bring all the big Bangla publishing names on board and allow them to showcase their works to greater Bengali readers.
It is ridiculous that the success of this event is being measured by the number of titles published and the amount of book sold. Like many nondescript citizens I stay in dark about these titles. Bangla Academy may easily come to our rescue by launching a dedicated website that offers synoptic introduction of these titles.
Or onus of website on book summary can be given to publishers' guild. Enthusiasts will glean information from this website. It is,I think, pretty cheap to reach out the broader readers than through other means.
In some earlier fairs, I observed that Bangla Academy announced top books on various categories and honored the authors and publishers. This year, it appears, this system has been discontinued. I do not know the reason. This selection of top books among the published titles in Ekushey Book Fair will definitely work as a yardstick for good books that readers long for. Similarly, publishers will get an idea what kind of titles they are supposed to publish.
Earlier I had also noticed private e-commerce sites offered special discounts for ordering Ekushey books online. It happened immediately after the book fair had come to an end. This year even that is noticeably absent.
When we were school goers, we saw two back to back fairs.Dhaka International Book Fair preceded the Ekushey Book Fair. It displayed foreign publishers' titles. It has all gone for the last couple of years.
Ekushey does not offer this opportunity to foreign publishers. This is contrary to the very spirit of Ekushey that entails recognition of cultural aspirations in various mother tongue and assimilation of different streams of Bengali cultural movements happening around the world.
There has been a lot hue and cry that the foreign Bengali publishers will capture the market at one fell swoop. Our sky is open, inundation of Hindi and foreign Bengali films and serials did not nonplus our home-grown entertainment industry. Rather we entered into joint collaboration resulting in a noticeable increase in quality contents and introduction of professionalism. On the same token, allowing foreign publishers at home will improve our local publication industry and give the Bengali culture a firm footing to reach out the global audience.
In Ekushey Book Fair, Bangla Academy could easily hold an international corner where foreign Bengali book publishers can display their titles and interact with readers and local publishers and sell the copyright of popular titles to local publishers. This may last for a week or for few days. This step could easily take Ekushey Book fair into a new height. If somehow that is not possible then Bangladesh Publishers' Guild can organize a week-long book fair at a convenient time of the year and invite the top foreign Bengali publishers from other side of the fence.
Unfortunately, Bangla Academy is not doing enough to facilitate collaborative projects that subsume exponents of various countries. This entails recruitment of foreign research /project director, resident scholar and a dedicated team. For instance, it can launch an online reading service of Bengali classics where paid readers can get assistance for retrieving meaning of complex and ancient Bengali words/ phrase using an integrate online dictionary.
Seasonal nature of this fair has contributed to this staggering sales figure. If this fair is about to increase the number of readers and thrive the publication industry, then we have to admit it has nothing special to offer. Libraries are the big buyers of books and they also create readers. Unfortunately, libraries are dying in our country. Government should step forward to help flourish the number of libraries. In many of our neighbouring countries, central and local governments patronize the numerous libraries and library related activities. Even in their annual budget, these governments allot funds for the libraries so that they can purchase books for members. Apart from creating readers, the libraries of this region are playing a far more important role in creating skilled and knowledgeable citizens. Taking cue from neighbours, Bangladesh can set aside funds for libraries across the country and assign government officials, teachers, artists, police and army officers to preside over their activities.
A month-long fair will not revive our publication industry. At the same time confining it within a group of domestic publishers will not usher in a change to readers and publishers. We need to invite foreign publishers and writers to take part in this fair. And most importantly libraries are needed to provide sustenance for the minds of change makers and nation builders.
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