Rafiqun Nabi (born 1943 in Nawabganj District

Nawabganj District

Chapai Nawabganj is a district in Northern Bangladesh. It is a part of the Rajshahi Division. Originally it was a subdivision under Malda district. In 1947, this was severed from Malda and was given to East Pakistan as a sub-division of Rajshahi district...

, Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

) is a Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

i artist and cartoonist. He usually signs his works as Ranabi , "Ra" being the initial for Rafikun in Bangla

Bengali language

Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...

. Nabi's most famous creation is Tokai, a character symbolizing the poor street boys of Dhaka

Dhaka

Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka Division. Dhaka is a megacity and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, had a population of over 15 million in 2010, making it the largest city...

 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 straight away

Nabi was born in Nawabganj District in northwest Bangladesh in 1943. He graduated from Pogose School

Pogose School

Pogose School was established in Dhaka in 12th June, 1848, as the first private school of the country by JG Nicholas Pogose, who was an ex-student of Dhaka Collegiate School, a leader of the Armenian community of Dhaka, a merchant and a Zamindar. At present it is located at Chittaranjan Avenue...

, Dhaka

Dhaka

Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka Division. Dhaka is a megacity and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, had a population of over 15 million in 2010, making it the largest city...

. He enrolled in the Bangladesh College of Arts and Crafts (later renamed as Institute of Fine Arts under Dhaka University). There, he studied under the supervision of artists like Zainul Abedin

Zainul Abedin

Zainul Abedin was nitially a painter of India and became famous in 1944 with his Famine Series paintings of 1943; and after partition he moved to Pakistan; and finally when Bangladesh was created in 1971, he was rightly considered the founding father of Bangladeshi Art...

 and Quamrul Hassan

Quamrul Hassan

Quamrul Hassan was a Bangladeshi artist. Hassan was born in Kolkata, India. In Bangladesh, Hassan's fame as an artist is perhaps only second to that of Zainul Abedin. Hassan is often referred to in Bangladesh as Potua, a word usually associated with folk artists, due to his down to earth style...

. Nabi received a scholarship from the Asia Foundation between 1962-64. After his graduation, he joined the institute as a teacher. He went to Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

 and studied art between 1973-1976 under a scholarship from the Government of Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

.