How better to celebrate the birth of a nation than a book fair. Bangladesh's independence from West Pakistan (present day Pakistan) was spurned by the prospect of enforcing Urdu on the predominantly Bangla speaking people of East Pakistan (present day Bangladesh.) This, among other atrocities, was more than the Bangla-speaking people could tolerate. A war was waged and independence was had.
To commemorate the struggle to preserve culture and identity through language (they had after all been lumped into one country by the Brits on the basis of religion alone), Bangladeshi's call their national day not Bangladesh Day nor Independence Day nor Freedom Day but rather National Language Day. And to celebrate, they host a month long book fair on the grounds of the Bangla Academy, the country's centre for Bangla language preservation.
Don't get the wrong ideas. The book fair is no staid event. Humanity is heaped upon itself, bursting the bindings that hold the fragile stalls together. Children wail and weave through the crowds, lovers conceal their caresses in the anonymity of the crowd, the elderly catch thier breath while resting on the bust of the martyred language liberators, and all the while book wallas persistently peddle their glossy wares.
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