South Asia
Kolkata International Book Fair Bangladesh Day observed at Kolkata International Book Fair
Kolkata, March 5: A two-day-long Bangladesh Day celebration was organized at the 45th Kolkata International Book Fair.
On the inaugural day of the book fair on Thursday, writers, readers, publishers and general people of West Bengal participated in the cultural programme and several seminars on Bangabandhu, Liberation War and Bangladesh organized at SBI Auditorium.
On the occasion of the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the golden jubilee of Bangladesh's independence, various programmes have been organized on Bangladesh in this year's book fair.
This year's Kolkata International Book Fair, which will continue from February 28 till March 13, has been dedicated to Bangabandhu. Bangladesh has been made the theme country. A huge number of readers from West Bengal are flocking to the beautiful Bangladesh Pavilion every day. The celebration of the centenary of the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, along with the stalls of the National Implementation Committee and the stalls of 40 public and private publications of Bangladesh was also attended by a large number of interested readers.
The first day of Bangladesh Day celebrations started at 3 pm on Thursday with a lively cultural programme. Then there were two seminars. The first seminar, which started at 5 pm, was on "Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib, the Poet of Politics" and his three books ("Osomapto Atmajiboni" (Unfinished Autobiography), "Karagarer Rojnamcha" (Prison Diary) and "Amar Dekha Nayachin").
The keynote speaker was Kamal Chowdhury, Chief Coordinator of the National Implementation Committee and a poet from Bangladesh. Poet Tariq Sujat, Sukhranjan Dasgupta, a prominent journalist from West Bengal who received the 'Bangladesh Liberation War Friendship Award', and Chinmoy Guha, Professor of English at Calcutta University, also delivered speeches at the programme. The seminar was presided over by eminent fiction writer Selina Hossain, President of Bangla Academy. Shihab Shahriar was in the presentation.
The theme of the second seminar, which was held at 7 pm, was 'Bangladesh-India Book Exchange and Marketing: Problems and Prospects'. The keynote speaker was Mahrukh Mohiuddin, Managing Director of University Press Limited, a Bangladeshi publishing house.
