Despite several attempts of attracting visitors at the fair by the stall owners and different artists, Amar Ekushey Book Fair 2021 watched a downtrend of the bookworms.
Among the hard-working initiators, portrait artists are a group who accelerates the attraction of the fair each year. Many people usually come to the fair, buy books and make a portrait from the artists out of their fascination.
However, the woe of these sketch artists knows no bounds following the freshly imposed movement restriction by the government since visitors are hardly being seen now-a-days compared to the previous years.
Tarun Kanti Sarkar, a portrait artist was sitting with a gloomy face at the book fair premises with sketch papers and drawing equipment. When asked, he told The Report that his trade was very bad this year as only a few individuals came to him for making portrait.
A group of artists portraying living persons on the paper, and curious people surrounding the artists to see their work is a common scenario of the book fair but this year the scene is rare as less number of visitors paid their visit to this year’s fair.
“The condition was previously predictable but we didn’t think that the situation can be as worst as we are facing now. I am proud to be one of these few who can take passion as a profession,” added Tarun.
“I have been drawing at the book fair for the last 15 years. I never saw such a low response in previous times. Due to the fewer visitors at the fair due to the pandemic we have to go through the difficult times,” he added.
In previous years, he used to draw an average of ten pictures a day, but this year the number did not cross four in any day.
Although there is less work, we sit in the premises as many talented people, popular personalities visit the fair. After the fair we get a lot of work as the intellectuals, Tarun told The Report
“I never thought about who would take this job and who wouldn’t. All I know is that I love my work, and I must continue to do so,” he continued.
Md Ratan Mridha, another artist of such kind, said, “Out of respect for us Bangla Academy gives us places for free of cost but we have to take allotment through applications like the stalls. In this case, Bangla Academy gives priority to the performance of the artist and other intellectual matters.”
“We are even charging less than Tk400 per work,” Ratan said.
“Due to the pandemic the fair organizing committee decreased the fair’s visiting hours. And the upcoming nationwide lockdown may cause the fair closure suddenly. There is no chance to get response like previous years,” he furthered.
Before 2016, when there was no problem of registration or permission, there were 16-18 artists in this fair for creating portraits, but since then, this number has come down up to six.
“I want to surprise one of my beloveds, and so I showed them his picture and they cooperated with me in this regard. They are not only artists they are gems,” Sadia Ahmed a visitor said.
“I want to display my portrait on the wall of my room which will give me much pleasure but this year I can understand the unfavourable situation,” Rupak Debnath another visitor said.
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