Naren Ray (Sufi)

Naren Ray
Born	January 8, 1936(1936-01-08) Comilla, Bangladesh
Died	July 26, 2003(2003-07-26) (aged 67) Kolkata, West Bengal
Residence	Bangur Avenue, Kolkata
Nationality	Indian
Ethnicity	Bengali
Citizenship	Indian
Occupation	cartoonist
Years active	1955-2003
Employer	Freelancer
Home town	Shibpur, Howrah
Religion	Atheist

Naren Ray (08th January,1936 - 26th July,2003) better known as Sufi, was a Bengali Cartoonist with a career spanning nearly five decades, during which time he had published political as well as children's cartoons in a number of prominent Bengali magazines and newspapers. His role as a political cartoonist earned him more ire than dividends, while his work as a strip cartoonist was a class apart and unique in nature.^[1]. His cartoons in a multitude of newspapers over the decades has been very closely followed by generations of Bengali middle class people without ever being aware of his true identity.He has been a regular contributor to the prestigious Shankar's weekly, published by the famous political cartoonist K. Shankar Pillai.Even though his works are limited to print media associated with the Bengali language only,his work has been characterized as unique in the fact that even though there were a few political cartoonist during his time, his close ties to the leftist movement rendered his drawings and ideas peerless.^[2].

Early Life and education

Sufi was born in the district of Comilla, Bangladesh on the 8th of January, 1936. His father worked in the police department and after independence decided to relocate with his family to Kolkata in the year 1948. Then a kid, sufi was taken out of the school that he was in at a place called Brahmanberia, when he was in class four. He initially thought that they were going for a family trip and would soon return back to what was now East Pakistan. As the idea of never being able to go back to his childhood abode and affiliations fully struck him, he was deeply distressed and in his own words never recovered from that jolt during his lifetime. The family shifted to Shibpur, Howrah. Sufi joined the famed Dinabandhu Institution in class five.^[3]. Formal studies were never very appealing to him and he taught himself, mainly by being a voracious reader of books on a multitude of subjects.^[2]. Being the eldest of five siblings, he had to start working at a tender age. While he gave private tuition to sponsor his reading habits, for most of the part he would beg or borrow them from an acquaintance. He was finishing three books in a day at this point of time and was also member of a few local libraries. He went on to complete school in 1956 and then cleared the intermediate in 1958.Through out this period, he had been drawing for the school and college magazines and a few commercial assignments. However, his school drawing teacher was not impressed enough to ever commend him personally.Sufi was never very enthusiastic about formal education and joined an art school in 1958 to pursue drawing and handicrafts. Personal and family problems led him to abandon the course before its completion in 1962. It was at this point in his life that he decided to be a cartoonist.^[3]

Career

Naren Ray started drawing for different magazines at a tender age. During his schooling days he and his mates from a library decided to publish a handwritten magazine, Koishorok.While he produced drawings and sketches for the periodical,fellow Shibpur resident and famous comic strip artist Narayan Debnath created the cover.^[3] Later on, both him and Sufi would end up working with the same publishing house Deb Sahitya Kutir and Jugantar newspaper. Thus started his sketches in accordance to the subject matter of a story or a poem. During this time, he also followed the cartoon and comic columns in papers and periodicals like jastimadhu ,sachitra Bharat,Achalpatra,Shonibaarer chithi, and took notice of the sarcasm and irony that was so effectively used by the cartoonists of the day, namely Shaila Chakraborty, Rebatibhusan, Promoth Samadder etc.^[2]. The popular sports magazines of the day, Gorer Maath and Stadium were one of the first places where his cartoons were published. By this time he had passed his school final exams and was drawing for Jastimadhu, Sangeetika, Jugantar, Basumati. The poverty, pain and suffering around him encouraged him to pursue cartoons as a form of art in which he could truly express himself. It was at this point of time that he decided to start drawing political cartoons for Swadhinata. One of the proprietors of the paper, Arun Roy became a mentor to him and was the first person who encouraged him to proceed with his political cartoons.^[4] Arun Roy also introduced Sufi to the Indian version of Punch, Shankar's weekly. Sufi was a regular contributor to the magazine until it was closed at the time of emergency. Although initially he would draw under his real name, by the time he was drawing political cartoons, he was using a number of pen names including Bini, Birinchi and Srigupta.^[2].

During the 1960's, a women's magazine named Mohila was run from north Kolkata by Basanta Kumar Chattopadhyay. Sufi was invited to draw for that magazine provided he used a female identity. Sufi signed his cartoons as Pramila Ray, his mother's real name.^[5] Similarly, he signed all his works as Sanjay in Basumati and Jugantar during this period. He had the first experience of publishing a complete comic strip in Swadhinata's sunday edition. Saotal Bidroho, drawn by him and written by Pachugopal Bhaduri was published as a serial comic strip in the paper. Sufi was to have a long association with both Jugantar and Basumati, which spanned for more than 24 years until both the papers went out of circulation in 1996. When he started drawing for the Communist party vehicle Ganashakti, he was advised by the editor to take up the pen name of Sufi, which roughly demonstrated ascetic nature and purity. However, in spite of his name, he was harassed from time to time by his political perpetrators^[3]. During this period of time he was also continuously drawing for children and kid's sections at different prominent periodicals. It is these collective works of his that have time and again been hailed as the better and more enduring part of his creations.^[1][2]. Sufi had started drawing cartoons at magazines like Shuktara, Sishusathi and Sandesh during the 60's. He did numerous illustrations in Deb Shitya Kutir publications like Shuktara and Nabakallol. Sufi started drawing cartoons in Sandesh during 1962-63, and Satyajit Ray has been known to have admired his works.At least in one case, Satyajit Ray is known to have provided caption for one of his cartoons. That cartoon was later re printed in the Sharadiya ganashakti magazine in 2000^[2][3]. In 1967-68 Dinesh Chandra Chattopadhyay started publishing Kishore Bharati. Serial comic strips were created by a number of cartoonists for the publication, which included Sufi, Narayan Debnath, Shaila Chakraborty, Chandi Lahiri and Mayukh Choudhury. These cartoons are known for having a strong underlying message. He conducted a school of art and craft for children from 1990 to 2001 at his residence in 50/2, Block- B, Bangur Avenue,Kolkata. He had to stop the classes because of his deteriorating health conditions. He had himself published a couple of cartoon tabloids named Rongo Byango and Byango Jagat during the later part of his life. In 1995, Sufi and his fellow political strip cartoonist Amal Roy published a brochure full of cartoon and insights , which was helped by The Lake Town Book Fair Committee. The brochure was titled Boi Niye Saatkahon roughly translating as "Seven tales of a book". The publication was reprinted in 1996 and sold out^[6].

Political Ideology and personal life

Like thousands of others that were displaced from their birth places as a result of the partition, and grew up in utter destitution and poverty, Sufi symathised with the Communist party. His younger brothers were also involved with the Naxalite and the leftist movements respectively. Unlike his siblings, Sufi never took an active interest in party politics, but created numerous political cartoons time and again, for the party vehicle Ganashakti as well as other tabloids and remained closely aligned to his political beliefs till the last days of his life^[7].He was usually a freelancer in nature although he did draw on a regular basis for newspapers like Basumati and Jugantar and publishing houses like Deb Sahitya Kutir. His political affiliations did not work out well for his career as he refused to work for any publication that he could not ethically endorse. Often his cartoons would end up in the waste basket in those magazines, as they ridiculed a certain personality that was a patron of the paper^[1][5]. He got a job as a clerk in a district school board in 1962, but he was promptly fired when it was found out that he was a political cartoonist with communist sympathies. Similarly, his pen name Sufi has been ridiculed at by readers during the India Pakistan war of 1971 and people have deduced communal undertones to this name^[5]. He has never been commercially successful in spite of being published at such a wide scale. Similarly, he received very little recognition or media attention before his death, as he liked to lead a very low profile and astute life. He has been favorably reviewed by his surviving peers as well as the media posthumously and is widely considered as a formidable figure behind the development of cartoon and caricature in Bengali. Sufi has often regretted the decreasing amount of exposure that cartoon has on the Bengali media, and has said that there isnt enough work in Bengali for a cartoonist to survive. On the other hand he has applauded the positive influence of cartoon in other publications in Delhi and Mumbai where he used to draw for Tej' and Shankar's Weekly. He has repeatedly stressed the serious message behind a cartoon and the ease with which it can be conveyed. He opined that not anyone could become a cartoonist and that the one who would decide to do so, must have a very keen insight on a number of complex subjects^[3][5].During his last days, he had expressed the desire of being able to make an animation film, although at the same time confessing that such an exercise is an impossible venture for him.^[3]

Sufi along with his siblings and joint family, had moved to Bangur Avenue in 1972. He married Mamata Ray in March 1974. His one and only son, Nirmalya was born in 1977. He changed his initial address in Bangur in 1990 and moved to his brother's house down the lane. From here he ran Sufi's school of Arts and Craft till 2001. He was plagued by Asthma and had been hospitalized more than a couple of times for breathing troubles. On the morning of saturday, 26th July, 2003 he suffered a massive heart attack and expired. True to his ideological beliefs, he had led a simple, humble and austere life. He was always dressed in nothing but khaddarer Panjabi and dhoti and worked and slept on the same mattress. His friends like Shantipriyo Bandopadhyay and Amal Roy have described him to be a very kind, humble and philanthropic person, a true gentleman. The fact was reinforced by the information that he had donated his body for research and his eyes^[2]. He is survived by his wife and son who presently reside in a joint family at Bangur Avenue, Kolkata.^[7].

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} TTIS, The Daily Telegraph, Toon magic part 83 by Debasish Deb on 28th April, 2008
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Sharadiya Sandesh,2010, Cartoonist Sufi by Biswadeb Gangopadhyay
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Interview at Suprabhat on DD Bangla on the 11th of april,2003
4. ^ Sambad Protidin Sufi on 11th July, 2010
5. ^ ^{a b c d} Khaas Kolkata, Tara Tv on 14th May, 2003
6. '^ Boi niye saatkahon by Sufi and Amal Roy,Gronthomela publishers,5th January,1995
7. ^ ^{a b} TTIS,The Telegraph, The Peoples Artist by Debopratim Ray, 19th May, 2008