Rafiqun Nabi (born 28 November 1943), better known as Ranabi, is a Bangladeshi artist and cartoonist. He is best known for creating '' Tokai'', a character symbolizing the poor street boys of

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...

who lives on picking things from dustbins or begging and having a knack of telling simple yet painful truths about current political and socio-economic situation of the country. He was awarded

Ekushey Padak Ekushey Padak () is the second highest civilian award in Bangladesh, introduced in memory of martyrs of the Bengali language movement of 1952. The award is given to recognize contributions in a number of fields, including culture, education, and e ...

in 1993 by the

government of Bangladesh The government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh () is the central government of Bangladesh. The government was constituted by the Constitution of Bangladesh comprising the executive (the president, prime minister and cabinet), the ...

Early life and education

Nabi was born on 28 November 1943 to a

Bengali Muslim Bengali Muslims (; ) 'Mussalman'' also used in this work./ref> are adherents of Islam who ethnically, linguistically and genealogically identify as Bengalis. Comprising over 70% of the global Bengali population, they are the second-largest ...

family in Nawabganj District in India (now in northwest Bangladesh) in 1943. He started drawing in his childhood. In the early 1950s, his father took him to a painting exhibition, held at the then Bardhaman House (now Bangla Academy). He completed his bachelor's and master's from the East Pakistan College of Arts and Crafts (now Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka). He studied under the supervision of artists like Zainul Abedin and

Quamrul Hassan Quamrul Hassan (; 2 December 1921– 2 February 1988) was a Bangladeshi artist. Quamrul Hassan is referred to in Bangladesh as Potua, a word usually associated with folk artists, due to his down to earth style yet very modern in nature as he ...

. He received a scholarship from the Asia Foundation between 1962 and 1964. During 1973–1976, he studied printmaking in Athens School of Fine Arts under the Greek Government's postgraduate scholarship. Nabi served as a faculty member of Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka during 1964–2010.

Career

Nabi started out as a professional cartoonist in 1963. His first contribution was to Weekly Purbodesh. Later in the mid 1960s, he became a regular in Shochitro Shandhani where he used to illustrate with cartoons the column ''Kaal Penchar Dairy'' by Abdul Gani Hazari. In the late 1960s, he worked for the ''Weekly Express'', an English periodical. During 1969, he got involved in a periodical named ''Forum'', published by Rehman Sobhan and Hamida Hossain. Nabi returned from Greece in 1976. He began to contribute cartoons to the Weekly ''Bichitra'' and '' Dainik Bangla''. He created the character '' Tokai'', which first appeared in the anniversary issue of ''Bichitra'' in May 1977.

Early life and education

Career

References

Further reading