Main Page «
Front Page «
Business «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

Curtain fell on Amar Ekushey Granthamela, known as Ekushey book fair, on the Bangla Academy premises on Sunday, with 3,354 new books hitting the fair during the month-long event.
   A large number of booklovers gathered at the fair on the concluding day, when the fair authorities declared that the total turnover of this year’s fair was around Tk 20 crore.
   According to the fair information centre, the total turnover of the fair in 2007 was 18 crore, about Tk 20 crore in 2008 and Tk 18 crore in 2009.
   Most of the publishers failed to provide the exact figure of their turnover even on the last day of the fair as many of them said they would have a good sale on Sunday and they would be able to give the figure after Sunday.
   Popular publishers were satisfied with their sales when some small publishers said their sales were
   not up to their expectation.
   A total of 3,354 new titles hit the Ekushey book fair till the last day of the fair, according to the fair information centre.
   Collections of poems topped the list of new arrivals with 807 collections of poem, followed by 581 novels including 378 stories, 255 essays, 134 biographies, 110 collections on liberation war and 129 children’s books.
   A total of 132 rhymes, 87 research books, 64 titles on science, 57 travelogues, 33 titles on politics, 54 titles on history, 38 translated books, 33 books on health issues and 18 books on religion were on the list of new arrivals.
   Of the Ekushey Award 2010 recipients, Arunabh Sarker and Rabiul Hussain got the award for poetry, Anwara Sayed Huq and Sushanta Majumder got the award for novel, Abul Ahsan Choudhury got the award for research and Rafiqul Haq got the award for children’s literature.
   Three publishing houses — Tai Tumbur, Kathaprakash and Mawla Brothers — were given Sarder Jaen Uddin Smrity Award by the academy for stall decoration at the closing ceremony.
   A total of 370 publishing houses and government and non-government agencies participated in this year’s book fair.
   Bijoyprakash for ‘Megh Mallar’, Subarna for ‘Muktijuddher Galpa-1’ and Pathak Samabesh for ‘Shahidul Jahir Smarak Grantha’ got Chityaranjan Saha Smrity Award.
   Kabir Chowdhury, president of the Bangla Academy, presided at the closing programme attended by the information minister, Abul Kalam Azad, as chief guest.
   BRAK Bank managing director Abdul Mohaimen, Step Media director Mostafa Jahid Khan and Bangla Academy director general Samsuzzaman Khan were present at the proramme.
   A cultural program
   held after the closing ceremony.
   At least 98 new titles, including 23 books of poems, 8 novels, and 25 collections of stories, 11 collections of essays and five collections of biographies, hit the fair on the concluding day.
   The fair is being arranged since 1972, but it became institutionalised in 1978. The fair was named Amar Ekushey Granthamela and a guideline for it was formulated in 1984.

The month-long Khulna Ekushey book fair-2010 in the Khulna city drew a large crowd on the last day of the fair on Sunday.
   On the day, a total of 21 new titles hit the fair at Khulna Divisional Government Public Library premises at Bayra.
   Organised by the Khulna district administration, the fair aims at creating readers of good books and enhancing the interest of the young people in art, culture and literature.
   Seminars and discussion meetings on specific topics of literature, art, culture and history were held at the fair ground on each of the 28 days of the fair featuring 55 stalls this year.
   National and local intellectuals, educationalists and cultural personalities participated in the seminars and meetings.
   The new arrivals included 1 novel, 13 collections of poems, 2 books of history, 1 grammar, 1 biography and 1 album, said the fair organising committee member secretary, Mohd Ahsan Ullah, also senior librarian of Khulna Divisional Government Public Library, while talking to New Age Sunday evening.
   He, expressing his happiness for the successful ending of the fair, claimed the Khulna Ekushey book fair, drew the attention of the people of different districts adjacent to Khulna.
   Both the sellers and buyers were happy as the buyers could get books as per their demand and the stall owners could make a good profit.
   ‘The sales in the fair, especially in the last two weeks, were satisfactory and we could make a good profit,’ said Utsarga Roy of a stall opened by Khulna Sahitya Sangsad.
   He, however, emphasised more publicity of the fair before and during the fair time.
   The Ekushe book fair at the place was organised governmentally for the first time this year and six fairs were jointly organised earlier non-governmentally by the Khulna divisional government public library and Sahitya Sangsad between 2004 and 2009.
   A cross-section of people, especially belonging to the educated families, came to visit the fair, said the fair organsiers and stall owners. They added that most of the visitors were students and young men and novels were the best sold items at the fair.

Sonia Akhter, a Class III student at Amader Pathshala, was colouring a drawing of rural vista in the cultural programme of the school on one Saturday.
   The daughter of a garment worker, Sonia often helps her mother in the household chores but she is regular in attending her classes from Uttar Kalshi in the Dhaka city’s Mirpur area.
   ‘I like to come to school and I enjoy my classes,’ she said.
   Like Sonia, Mustak, a Class I student, also enjoys his classes and cultural activities at the school.
   His shabby clothes, however, expose his poverty. He lives at a slum near the Mirpur Ceramic factory. Mustak’s father is a blind man, and his mother has no permanent work to earn money for her family.
   To make education accessible to the destitute children like Sonia and Mustak, Amader Pathshala started its journey in January 2008 with the slogan ‘quality education for underprivileged children in a humanistic way’.
   Located at House 40, Lane 25, Block D of Pallabi at Mirpur, the school has now 160 students.
   ‘We opened the school to make education accessible to the children who cannot afford to have education at the government and non-government educational institutions because of economic or other reasons,’ said Anu Muhammad, a trustee of the school.
   Anu, also a professor of economics at Jahangirnagar University, said, ‘The school always tries to make education interesting to the students when the mainstream educational institutions in the country lack this seriously.’
   Amader Pathshala aspires to be a replicable model of institution offering quality education for the poor children.
   ‘But, the school faces serious shortage of fund and efficient teaching staff,’ Anu said, adding, ‘The hurdles can be overcome if people perform their responsibility to society.’
   The school enrols students in Class I to Class VII. The classes are held in two shifts in three rooms of the rented house. The school, which is run with individual financing, charges Tk 10 from each student as monthly fee.
   It follows the syllabus being exercised at the public schools but in a different teaching method.
   ‘We have adopted a teaching method ‘survey-question-read-recite-review’ to develop inquisitive mind of students, and to facilitate active participation of the students to understand the texts,’ said Abul Hasan Rubel, head-teacher of Amader Pathshala.
   ‘Where in most cases students are inert and submissive to the teachers, our students are lively and active,’ he said.
   The students also get basic lessons in art and other cultural activities at the school. ‘Here the teachers do not burden the students with home work and the lessons have been prepared with relevance to their own life,’ he said.
   The school provides the students with snacks at the tiffin period with a view to providing them with nutrition.
   The school recently has launched computer training programmes for the Class VI and VII students, aiming to make the students capable of earning money to support their families and as well as continue their studies.
   ‘All our programmes require money to be implemented, and we are facing fund crisis,’ said Rubel. ‘The school does not take funds from the NGOs and the donor agencies as they often try to exercise their influence on the institution which takes funds from them,’ he said.
   ‘We solely depend on individual financing. If we can manage more individual financing consistently, we will be able to push our educational programmes ahead,’ he added.

The general students of MM City College and the college unit of the Bangladesh Chhatra League on Saturday blocked the Khan Jahan Ali Road at the college gate for an hour, protesting at the Jessore education board’s decision to shift the examination centre for the HSC examinees of the institution.
   A number of teachers of the college said they had been informed that the upcoming Higher Secondary Certificate examination centre of their students was shifted from the Government Pioneer Mahila College to the Boyra Government Mahila College, about five kilometres away from the college.
   Earlier on February 23, they were informed that the students of the MM City College would sit at the Government Pioneer Mahila College centre, the teachers added.
   This year’s HSC examination is scheduled to begin on April, 1 throughout the country.
   The students said having received the information, the general students and college unit BCL brought out a procession and blocked the road at the gate from 11:00am to 12:00noon.
   During the blockade period, the vehicles had to use the alternative roads to reach their destinations.
   The students withdrew the blockade after getting assurance from a district administration representative of resolving the problem.
   Talking to New Age, the college principal, Professor Khurshida Begum, described the change of centre as a matter ‘harassment and prestige issue’ and said the students’ agitation was nothing but expression of dissatisfaction.

Two persons were hacked to death and a woman was injured at Matiyapole-Banargatee under Sona-danga police station in the Khulna city on Sunday.
   The deceased were identified as fish trader Md Haider Ali alias Kana Haider, 35, and his brother-in-law Tariqul Islam alias Piku, 28, of Matiyapole-Banargatee.
   The wounded woman, now under treatment at the Khulna Medical College Hospital, is Morjina Begum, 30, the wife of Haider.
   According to local people and the police, four unidentified assailants entered the house of Haider at around 3:30pm and began hacking him in his room. Hearing his cry, Haider’s wife Morjina and brother-in-law Piku came to save him. The assailants also hacked them and left the spot.
   The locals took the three to the KMCH where the on-duty doctors declared Haider and Piku dead.
   Morjina’s mother Sakina Begum, who witnessed the incident, told the newsmen that Morjina’s first husband Raju and three of his associates were responsible for the attack.

Weather is likely to remain dry with partly cloudy sky over the country till 6:00pm today.
   Night temperature may remain nearly unchanged over the country, the Met Office said in a forecast.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 6:01pm and rises tomorrow at 6:20am.
   The country’s highest temperature, 34.2 degrees Celsius, was recorded on Sunday in Jessore and the lowest 15.3 degrees, at Srimongal.