Following two days of momentary rush, the Amar Ekushey Boi Mela on Sunday experienced a dip in the energy of its customers as both the presence of book lovers as well as sales remained low.
Number of visitors at the fair fell sharply as a fresh round of hartals, announced during the weekend by the BNP-led 20-party alliance, began yesterday morning.
However, publishers and stall attendants said it is usually quite normal to experience a drop in number of visitors to the fair following a weekend.
Shawkat Ali, a sales officer at University Press Limited, told the Dhaka Tribune: “Sales for the past two days were very good, as it was the weekend. But there are fewer visitors and sales have dropped.”
But, he added, the scenario would be a little better had there not been the hartal.
“I hope in the next days, there will be a huge flow of book lovers,” he added.
This year, UPL has brought a translation of “The Epic of Gilgamesh” which has been translated by Kader Mahmud with the name “Prithibir Prachintomo Lipibodho Golpo.”
Agamee Prakashani brought two books yesterday, one of them on homosexuality named “Shamokamita” by Rokey Lita, and “Kalidoher Kuhok” by Kamal Uddin Ahammod.
Attendant at Agamaee shared similar incidents about their sales, saying there were more sales the past two days although even that number itself was quite low.
Dr Jalal Ahmed, a member secretary of the fair committee, told the Dhaka Tribune: “We are trying hard to make this fair more vibrant than the past. We hope the fair will get its real shape and spirit soon.”
It appears that for some stalls, hartals and blockades are not the only reason behind experience few visitors. Some stalls seem to be “marginalised” for being placed in one corner of the east-end of Suhrawardy Udyan.
Some of the stall attendants complain they attract fewer visitors because of where they have been placed.
Khaled Ferdous at Tumpa publication said yesterday they have had a low visitors’ turnout in that part of the fair, even during the weekends.
“Now that the fair expands across a more vast area, people rarely don’t visit this corner,” he said.
Yesterday was the eighth day of the fair and saw the arrival of at least 130 new books, marking the total number of books at 1,010.
