Participants at the Cartoon Congress
Arifur Rahman is a cartoonist based in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Humaun Kabir Manik, from Jessore began his cartooning career in 1997. At the moment he is completing his Bachelors in Graphic Design & Multimedia. For the past 9 years he has been working as a cartoonist for the daily Prothom Alo. Manik, together with his twin brother Ratan, received the prestigious Unmad 'Cartoonist of the Year' Award in 2008.
Md. Kamruzzaman Ratan from Jessore is completing his Bachelors in Graphic Design and Multimedia. He has been the cartoonist for the daily Prothom Alo for the past 9 years. Together with his twin brother Md. Humaun Kabir Manik, he was awarded the Unmad 'Cartoonist of the Year' in 2008. Both brothers are cooperatively known as Cartoonist Manik-Ratan.
Niaz Ahmed Chowdhury Tuli is a senior cartoonist at the Bangla daily Prothom Alo.
Syed Rashad Imam (Tanmoy) is currently working as an assistant editor at Unmad, a monthly satire magazine. He is also a contributing cartoonist for the kids section of the newpaper Jaijaidin and the fun supplement of the daily Prothom Alo. He has exhibited his work in several group expositions this year including the Unmad Cartoon Exhibition and the Right to Health Cartoon and Painting Exhibition.
INDIA
Jaipur-based Hindi language cartoonist Abhishek Tiwari has been drawing for the last 24 years about daily life in India. He currently holds the chief cartoonist position at Rajasthan Patrika Group.
Ajit Ninan acquired a master's degree in Political Science in 1977. After working for the India Today group as cartoonist and illustrator, Ninan moved to the Indian Express in 1992 eventually switching to Outlook, one of India's upcoming news magazines. At present, Ninan works with The Times of India as their Group Art Consultant.
Ismail Lahari has worked for the past 15 years as the chief cartoonist in India's leading Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar. He specialises in political cartooning.
Dr Janaki Abraham is a sociologist, working as an assistant professor at the Women's Studies Programme at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi.
Born in Bangalore Keshav developed the habit of drawing at a very young age, exercising his cartooning skills by observing and sketching people whom he saw in real life. He received his Masters in Commerce from Madras University after which he was employed by a bank. In 1987 he shifted occupation to join The Hindu as a staff cartoonist. Keshav is based in Chennai.
Madhuker Upadhyay has been a practicing journalist for over three decades. He has written and published 25 books on various subjects including two on cartooning: Punchline (on the demolition of the Babri Masjid) and Drawing the Battle Lines (on the Gujarat carnage).
Malik Sajad is a student at the Institute of Music and Fine Arts in Srinagar, Kashmir. Since 2003, he has served as the editorial cartoonist at Greater Kashmir, an English-language newspaper, and at Kashmir Uzma, an Urdu-language publication.
Manjula Padmanabhan is a writer and artist whose comic strip, Double Talk, featuring the character Suki, appeared weekly in the Sunday Observer (1982-86) and daily in the Pioneer (1991-97). Manjula has illustrated 24 books for children, including Mouse Invaders, which she also wrote. Harvest, her fifth play, won the 1997 Onassis Award for Theatre. Her new novel, Escape, was released this month in New Delhi.
Dr Mark Bryant is a director of the London Press Club and a former Secretary of the British Cartoonists' Association. His work as a writer, journalist and exhibition curator has included Dictionary of 20th Century British Cartoonists & Caricaturists and the exhibition Abu: The Observer Years, 1956-1966 held in London in 2006.
Partha Borah is a cartoonist with the fortnightly North-East Voice.
Prabhakar P Wairkar has a Graduate Degree in Art from J J School of Art. His work has been published and exhibited worldwide, including in France, Germany, Switzerland and India. He was recognized as the 'Illustrator of the Year' by the Communications Arts Guild, India in 1997 and 1998 and was featured in the documentary Eminent Cartoonists of India.
Sadanand Menon is a photographer, stage lights designer and adjunct faculty member at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. He is notorious for feeling murderous towards those with no sense of humour.
Sudheernath is the secretary of the Kerala Cartoon Academy and an editorial cartoonist at the Malayalam newspaper Thejas.
Sudhir Tailang is a cartoonist with the Asian Age. His book, a collection of 150 cartoons on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has recently been released. This includes his cartoons on the prime minister from the Hindustan Times, where he worked for about two decades. Sudhir Tailang is also the creator of the documentary Abu, The Philosopher.
T K Sujith has been working for the Kerala Kaumudi since May 2001. His impressive collection of awards includes the Kerala state government's 'Media Award for Best Cartoonist' (2005 and 2007) and the 'Cartoonist of the Year Award' from the Trivandrum Press Club (2006). In addition, Sujith won first prize in Calicut University's Arts Festival four times (1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000).
Triambak Sharma is editor and cartoonist for the only monthly cartoon magazine in India, Cartoon Watch, which has been in publication for the past 12 years. He recently organised a two-week cartoon exhibition of his cartoon series Life is a Joke for Cartoon Watch at the Nehru Center in London. Triambak Sharma has plans to build the first cartoon museum in India.
NEPAL
Abindra Man Shrestha 'Abin' has worked as graphic designer, illustrator and cartoonist for more than a dozen publications. He is a cartoonist for the daily newspaper Nagarik Dainki and monthly business magazine Boss, in addition to being the art director for the New Business Age.
Basu Kshitij is a cartoonist with the Annapurna Post daily.
Bilash Rai is the creative director at the Himalmedia publication group. He is also an illustrator for Himal Southasian.
Even as a child Durga Baral (Vatsayan) dreamt of dedicating himself to the field of painting. But as circumstance would have it, he ended up becoming a cartoonist. Now, he cannot think of abandoning either painting or cartooning, and has become a cartoon himself, trying to sail in two different boats at the same time.
Rabin Sayami is a cartoonist with the Himalmedia publication group.
Kunda Dixit is a senior Nepali journalist and editor of the weekly newspaper Nepali Times.
Rajesh KC is a cartoonist with the Nepali daily Dainikee and the English daily Republica.
Raju Babu Shakya (Sarab) received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Campus of Fine Arts in Kathmandu. He is currently the senior cartoonist and department head of design/cartoons-illustration/pre-press at Kantipur Publications. He is the illustrator of the story-book on Hinduism, The Glory of Nepal and the comic-book The Lifeof Buddha.
Uttam Nepal is a cartoonist, illustrator and teacher with a Diploma in Fine Arts. He is a member of the Artist Society of Nepal and is currently the secretary at the Cartoonist's Club of Nepal. He has worked for numerous dailies, weeklies and monthlies published in Nepal, including the Himalayan Times vernacular daily, Nepal Fortnightly and Business Age.
PAKISTAN
Muhammad Zahoor is a cartoonist with the Daily Times in Peshawar.
Nigar Nazar is Pakistan's first woman cartoonist and art activist. She has used her cartoons to spread social messages through public buses, hospitals, television and live programs.
Rafique Ahmed 'Feica' went to school in Multan, Punjab Province and graduated in art from the National College of Arts in Lahore (1979). He has experience working as an illustrator and cartoonist in various national newspapers, currently drawing for the daily Dawn in Karachi.
Sabir Nazar works at The Friday Times. He also draws for the Daily Times and the daily Urdu Aaj Kal. His favourite topics of illustration are dictatorship and religious bigotry. His other interests include landscape painting, comparative mythology, folk art and history of religion.
SRI LANKA
Gihan de Chickera is a cartoonist based in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Vasuki Jeyasankar (Kamala Vasuki), a women's rights activist, uses lines and colours as a medium of creative expression and empowerment of women in the eastern part of Sri Lanka.