Image Gallery - The Ricksha Arts of Bangladesh





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Poster Prints, Dhaka, 1998

Borak: heavenly steed of Prophet Muhammad.
Dhaka, 1998

Hindu deities Krishna and Radha.
Dhaka, 1998

Movie "Rangbaj".

Muslim shrines poster.
Dhaka, 1998

Muslim calendar.
Dhaka, 1998

Famous Bengali poets Rabindranath Tagore and Nazrul Islam.
Dhaka, 1998

142nd Birthday of Tagore

The 142nd birth anniversary of the great poet Rabindranath Tagore was observed May 08/03.

Novelist, poet, composer, painter, essayist -- Tagore was a master of all of these genres.
Some of his works widely known today include the novel The Home and the World;
Gora; the poetry collection which won him the Nobel Prize for Literature, Gitanjali;
famous plays like The Postoffice; and musicals composed and the lyrics written by him.
Many of these are available on vinyl or CD. An appealing anthology of his work is The One and
the Many: Readings from the Work of Rabindranath Tagore. William Radice, trans;
John M. Berridge, photog. Bayeux Arts, Inc.: 1997, contains beautiful photographs
of Bengal to accompany the writings of Guru Dev (as he is familiarly known in Bengal).
The Library of Congress online catalog lists hundreds works by or about him.
Here is a link to a famous poem he set to music, that became the national
anthem of Bangladesh: http://www.copcity.com/anthems/bang.html

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Bangladesh National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam's 104th birth anniversary

25.May.03

http://www.nazrul.org/ is a useful website to read about Kazi Nazrul Islam.

"Only when the battle fields are cleared of jingling bloody sabres
Shall I, weary of struggles, rest in quiet,
I the great rebel." [translation by Kabir Chowdhury]

Nazrul became known as and felt himself to be a "rebel poet" in that

he lived a non-conformist life, married a Hindu woman, fought against

British colonial rule, even went to jail for his writings, and expressed

universalist, rather sufi-like views of life and divinity in his works. He

championed the suffering peasants and the poor.

As he wrote,

" I am Muslim, but my poetry is for all lands, all ages and all people....I have not

been proclaiming the message of Shariat - I have been writing poetry." Like

many artists, he had a large ego and so had no scruple about claiming himself

to be the "great rebel." A musician as well as novelist and poet, his working life as an artist

was short. Born in 1899 in a village in now West Bengal, he began writing at an early age.

Here is a snapshot of his working life when living in Calcutta:

"For a period lasting several years in the 30s [when he himself was in his thirties],
Nazrul's career flourishes with a variety of roles, including as a recording artist
with gramophone companies, a composer, music director, singer, song and story writer,
actor, etc. in films, plays, and radio programmes. Nazrul's association with gramophone
companies brought him a few years of financial success. It was difficult for Nazrul to
get a recording contract because of the British authority who would not allow the recording
of his songs on political grounds. Even the admirers of Nazrul were subject to scrutiny.
Harendra Dutta sang and recorded a song of Nazrul but kept Nazrul's name out of the label
fearing that the British authority of the recording company (His Master's Voice) would not
permit the recording. But the recording companies finally gave in to the immense popularity
of Nazrul and, sensing profit in it, started offering him contracts."

Nazrul took Rabindranath Tagore as his artistic guru (kobiguru); they became mutually admiring friends.

"There was a huge disparity between the two poets both in their lifestyle and the way of practice of literature. The language of their poetry was not the same, they had different tones. Rabindranath is the forerunner, paving ways and Nazrul, the follower of the path but exclusively distinctive. Beside all these differences there are still few things that they both shared. Both of them were stirred up by rebellious songs drenched in love for humanity. In astrological views both of them were born in May. If we consider the Bengali calendar there we can also find the similarities. Rabindranath marks his appearance in Baisakh and to pay respect to the senior, Nazrul steps in on the next Jaistha." [Baishakh comes ahead of Jaistha.] From Articles, under Works on Nazrul, on this site.

In 1942 he suddenly succumbed to mental illness, which afflicted him for the rest
of his long life, stealing his sense, speech, and creativity. His wife died in
1962, and ten years later he was brought to Dhaka from Calcutta by a daughter in law.
He died in August, 1976, and was buried near the Dhaka University mosque.

To read more about his life chronology, see Nazrul's Life link on http://www.nazrul.org/ .

See the other links on this site for more about the poet.

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Conveyance Arts Beyond Bangladesh
Pakistan Trucks - 1st Three Photos by Yvette C. Rosser

See also Truck Painting in Pakistan:
http://www.asienhaus.org/galerie/lkws/english/lkw.htm

Islamabad, 1997


A decorated side panel from a Pakistan bus. Karachi, 2000	A truck from Peshawar

Anjali, Cambodian-style

Afghan Truck before 1976

Hongkong Rickshaws

Japanese Rickshaws

Decorated Japanese rickshaws Meiji period rickshaw. Tourist rickshaw in Kyoto, Japan, '03
toting veiled princesses.

Hatian Tap Taps - Photos Vanessa Goscinny

Haitian Tap Taps.
Haiti

Haitian Tap Taps
Haiti

Philippines jeepneys

Decorated jeepney.
1981

Manilla jeepney
1999

Kerala, India, Truck Arts - Photos by Kathryn Myers

India Conveyances, various

Art Cars
According to the doyen of the art car phenomenon, Harrod Blank, the art car signifies "...a fantasy made into a reality. It is in itself a symbol of being free.... it expresses the ideas, values, and dreams of an individual." Representation of this sort reflects the individualism of industrial society; yet art cars also suggest transgressive readings of the commodified, wasteful, overstuffed consumerist culture to which they stand in marked contrast.

www.harrodblank.com