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Two recent spectacles involving teenagers and youths have not escaped attention of the conscious sections of society. They stand out in sharp contrast to one another. One scenario finds many from this age-group going the devil's way by leaking questions of public examinations and others procuring those stealthily. It's a free-for-all, with the frenzied orgy of question-paper leak devouring a whole generation. One might add to this the reemergence, with vengeance, of the menace of yaba, the terrible synthetic drug.
The other picture has teenage and adult youths pore over the books of their choice on display at the counters of stalls at the Ekushey Book Fair 2018, formally termed Ekushey Grontho Mela. Many are found moving around the fairground after purchasing their favourite books; a lot of others engage in debates over the virtues of a book or an author sitting on temporary benches at the venue. With the younger generations of the country taken to be hostile to books by and large, the reading youths are indeed a heartening view. The scenario has been unfolding with renewed vigour over the last few years, especially after the shifting of a large part of the month-long book fair to the capital's Suhrawardy Udyan. It begins on February 01 every year in commemoration of the historic Bangla Language Movement in 1952.
The small space filled with crowds at the annual fair on the earlier venue of the Bangla Academy premises used to keep the changing trend of the youths out of focus. That a large section of today's Bangladeshi youths was generally apathetic to books had been axiomatic for long. In general perception, both male and female youths were considered hooked on the online media. The overcrowded book fair did not provide any scope to single out the young, emerging readers. At the new venue of the Suhrawady Udyan, the reading youths came to the fore with their distinctive features. The fairground of the Ekushey Grontho Mela now pulsates with the vibrant presence of young book lovers. Against the backdrop of youths going awry, the very view of them engrossed in book-related activities makes one feel heartened. There are no reasons to give up altogether on the country's youths. The salubrious impact of the book fair has visibly created a turning-point in the youths' intellectual domain. In the midst of the passionate young book lovers, a sizeable number of them are found making space to emerge as budding authors. Keeping in mind the vicious developments sucking in a large number of youths, the rising number of others of the same age stuck to cleansing their inner world appears to be a happy phenomenon.
Like in the previous years, youths, both male and female, comprise a large segment of the book fair visitors. But their number this year seems overwhelmingly large. Although the late popular novelist Humayun Ahmed still dominated sales, varieties of books have added to the 2018 book fair's liveliness. Books by Humayun are believed to enjoy a strong presence at the fair for some more years. In fact, it's the creative books like fictions, stories, travelogues, juvenile tales that traditionally pull the average readers.
This year has presented a different scene, with almost all the participating publishers, nearly 450, offering at least a few non-fiction titles. The old larger houses have brought out over a dozen books each, dealing with varieties of subjects ranging from memoirs, history, Bangladesh Liberation War to politics and socio-economic realities of the country, the arts, archaeology to a lot of functional subjects like law, health and hygiene, baby care, gardening etc. Side by side with popular books, the country's renowned publishers like Mowla Brothers, UPL, Ononya, Biswa Sahitya Kendra, Nobojug, etc. customarily bring out non-fictions. In the catalogues of the relatively new houses such as Prothoma, Journeyman, Pathak Samabesh, Onyoprokash, Panjeri, Murdhanyo and many others, scholarly and research-based books now occupy a dominant place. To the surprise of many decades-old fair visitors, young readers were found this year leafing through these publications. Many youths purchase these books. Besides non-fictions, biographies, Bangla translation of modern and old foreign-language classics and reprint of out-of-print Bangla classics have emerged as an irresistible gift for the avid readers. Mostly adult and mature readers opted for these books; young book lovers also did not lag behind. Many of them have shown keen interest in translated books like they have in collections of poetry and fictions.
As many fair visitors have viewed, the character of the Ekushey Book Fair has undergone a remarkable change in the last couple of years. The books witnessed a remarkable variety brought to their respective genres by publishers; it led to a slow but steady emergence of a new breed of readers. Being fresh in the world of books, the young readers appear to be demonstrating a voracious character. Almost all types of books have appeal to them. Thanks to their lately triggered penchant for reading and thus finding themselves in a world completely new to them, many will delve deeper into it, which is a corollary. A few years into the domain of books, the emergence of a number of them with their own publications has, thus, become a wonderful feature at the fair. Budding amateur poets and novelists have in the recent years injected a unique vigour to the event. Many of them may not remain involved in writing in the later years; few choose writing as a career. But the short romance with creativity keeps them away from a lot of evils, especially drugs and violence. This is a great relief in the national perspective. Amazingly, not all of these aspiring writers turn out to be 'dropouts'. Many stay back with creative commitment to pursue a writer's career. These intrepid and committed young writers keep the book launch corner at the fairground in unalloyed ebullience and in an animated spirit.
Called 'Morhok Unmochon' (release of new books), the event this year is taking place on the western part of the fair. The event centres round a neatly built small dais. Five to seven books at a time are launched there in presence of the writers. Normally reputed litterateurs speak briefly on the authors and their maiden books. The atmosphere is sprightly, the venue filled with the young poets and novelists, and their fans. Of all other features of the fair, the book launch singularly proves the extent of importance it has to book-loving youths. However, senior writers are also often seen using the book launch dais for releasing their own books. The Udyan fair's first and second years smacked of mismanagement. Many facilities were not in place. Dust and the difficulty locating the book stalls due to their haphazard placements posed problems to the fair visitors. These hazards are largely gone; the fair has been made more spacious and professional. All this has enabled the Grontho Mela to emerge as a major national event in terms of logistics.
The Bangla Academy part of the fair has given accommodations for special types of publications, especially those produced by different government organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and electronic media houses. This year a good number of e-book publishers have been seen explaining the use of electronic books to the curious visitors. But in spite of the stall volunteers' untiring efforts to showcase the virtues of e-books, few visitors seem to have been satisfactorily impressed. E-books, thus, may have to wait patiently for some more time to become a widely accepted genre of publication.
In view of the country's total youth population, the book-loving youths comprise a small segment. Yet given the wholesale decline in positive values among the youths, the young readers and budding writers signal better times. The nation can still pin hopes on them; because they can at least appear as a bulwark against the forces of evil.