A bittersweet farewell unfolded at Suhrawardy Udyan and Bangla Academy yesterday as the curtains fell on the 2024 Amar Ekushey Boi Mela. Hundreds of bookworms thronged the fairgrounds, a sight that has become synonymous with the month of February in Dhaka.

For most of the publishers, pavilion planning commenced as early as mid January and the organisers left no stone unturned in terms of planning the layout.

Wandering through the bustling lanes of Boi Mela, amidst the cacophony of voices and the rustle of pages turning, I found myself lost in a curious examination of the Bangla love story.

If you walked towards Suhrawardy Udyan yesterday, you could feel the excitement in the air. The ambience would easily catch your attention and show that it’s a special occasion -- Ekushey February.

Boi Mela is more than a clickable link we see on our phone screens; it is more than the controversies and public debates.

With rows upon rows of book stalls offering everything from timeless classics to contemporary bestsellers, navigating through this maze of books can be both exhilarating and overwhelming

Just five years ago, if you told someone that they could commute to and from the Boi Mela in just an hour, they would have laughed at you and called you delusional.

The month-long Amar Ekushey Book Fair-2024 is set to begin tomorrow at Bangla Academy and Suhrawardy Udyan premises as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to inaugurate the country's largest book fair