Boi Mela in Gulshan comes to an end

The two-day long community book fair, Boi Mela, in the capital's Gulshan came to a close Sunday.

The fair was held on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Language Movement, coinciding with the Amar Ekushey Book Fair.

The second edition of the Boi Mela, consisting of 25 stalls with renowned publishers and booksellers, was arranged by the Gulshan Society at the Gulshan Lake Park.

Shukla Sarwat Siraj, convener of the organising committee, said that the book fair was organised in 2019 for the first time. But, it was not possible to do so in the last two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, she added.

"We are impressed and satisfied to see the crowd on the first day of the two-day fair," she said during the opening day.

Though the fair was organised on a very small scale this year, she hoped that it would be bigger next year.

"The fair has been arranged to facilitate the residents of Gulshan area ... this area is at a great distance from Amar Ekushey Book Fair and so a separate book fair here will help the book lovers in Gulshan," she had said.

Visitors also expressed their satisfaction with the neatly arranged segments of contemporary literature. They wished that this type of book fair would continue in the future.

The literature festival had stalls from renowned publishers and other organisations, including Cosmos Books, Bengal Boi, etc.

On behalf of Cosmos Books, Sourav Chowdhury, executive artistic manager of Gallery Cosmos, said the number of visitors was satisfactory and readers were very interested in buying books.

Muna Rahman from Bengal Book Stall said, "Of course, it is a great initiative and I would like to request the organisers that it would be very good if the time of the book fair could be extended."