The month long EkusheyBoi Mela (Book Fair) has started like in other years recently. For the first time in it s history, its opening was delayed by the Corona pandemic. First, their was vehement advocacy from medical professionals that the fair should be put off entirely this year as it could act like a super spreader of Covid-19. But finally the wishes of the people prevailed and the fair was launched about a month later after the scheduled date. Good number of people are coming to it though they have to observe strict health measures while in the fair. This annual eagerly awaited event has an umbilical chord like connection with our people’s emotion so that the authorities felt too pressurized into allowing it to be held.
A book fair is a filling station for the mind that opens up new vistas and horizons. The visitors eager to take a dip in the stream of knowledge is rewarded by what they discover among the stacks of books. Lots of people wait for nearly a year for the fair, and for the writers and publishers it is a grand occasion to prove their mettle.
The Boi Mela occupies an unique place in the hearts and minds of Bangladeshis. That is why they think that not holding of it in any year is just unthinkable. They see it as expression of their patriotism, their nationalism and unique sense of national identity. The Boil Mela was originally initiated to keep alive the memories of our glorious language movement. Over the years, it not only served this purpose wonderfully but also went further to create a platform for patriotic minded people to give vent to their feelings and emotions. People come here not only to buy books but also to recollect and celebrate the proud moments of their national awakening and metamorphosis and appreciating the same gratefully. It has become a mingling place for intellectuals who come from even outside Bangladesh to attend it.
The book fair has become like a symbol of our cultural and educational refinement. It is one of the few things that brings people closer to each other for a month every year. That is by itself no small achievement!Let it flourish further in the years ahead and exert its wholesome influence on society.
However, there are also other points to ponder.A newcomer to the Bangladesh scene may be very impressed by the zealous participation of people at the fair and their book buying spree. But there is also the other side to it. The book buying at the fair is a one time annual activity and does not signify that Bangladeshis, on the whole, are ardently a book reading people.
There are reasons for the same, of course. Illiteracy and lack of education are still limiting factors that exclude many people from reading books. There are a large number of book lovers, of course, among the narrower sections of the population who are literate and educated. But an equal or perhaps greater number of people in the otherwise literate or formally educated categories are distinguished for their shunning of books. They have read text books out of compulsion in their student days and would read books which are useful for their professional life. But they seldom venture out of these bounds to take up reading books on diverse subjects as a regular part of their daily or even weekly habit. Looking at these people, one may come to the conclusion that book reading on different topics as a habit to enrich the mind and the soul is yet to be the reality for the preponderant number in the literate or educated population of Bangladesh. This is not desirable.
There is a pressing need to develop the habit of reading books, to promote a culture of reading books in every home, to inspire the children specially to read books apart from their textual ones and to give books as gifts on different occasions. The rewards of doing these things should be obvious. A book reading people can be expected to be knowledge-based in their thoughts and actions and only knowledge-based societies will be the richer in every respect in the coming age.
The inculcation of a book reading habit among people, specially among the children or teenagers is badly needed because the impact of the audio-visual mediums of entertainment — particularly the visual one–have meant so many of them giving up the reading of books to the detriment of true learning. This is not only a problem in Bangladesh ; it is an unwanted phenomenon worldwide. While there is nothing wrong with limited exposure to the audio-visual mediums, there is never any substitutes to books when it comes to fully enlightening, helping the formation of objective or clear conceptions on different subjects and issues, imparting of information and knowledge fully and, broadening of the mental horizon. The same are only possible through the serene and aesthetic exercise of reading books.
