City of rickshaws

Arindam Sarkar

Even before river Teesta could flow into Bangladesh, the theme-makers of the Durga puja pandals here picked up one of the most popular symbols of Dhaka and turned it into a ravishing pandal.

The talks on sharing the Teesta between India and Bangladesh began in early 2012, the same year during Durgotsav, the Mangalam-Bondhusree Club of Behala designed their pandal as a rickshaw with all its motifs and colours that are now so common and famous in the Rickshaw Capital of the World – Bangladesh.

Bhabatosh Sutar is the artist who crafted the rickshaw art in the rickshaw-shaped Behala Durga puja pandal and depicted popular folklores and film scenes that are found on the body of the Dhaka rickshaws.

In 1919, rickshaw first reached Chittagong from Myanmar. European jute exporters introduced rickshaw in Narayanganj (Dhaka) and Netrakona (Mymensingh) in 1938 by importing it from Calcutta. In 1940s, the rickshaws began to be painted and decorated in East Pakistan. The rickshaw art, showing decorative motifs and floral designs in bold, bright and fluorescent colours on the backside of the pedi-cabs, today burn the streets of Bangladesh.

Each district has its own distinctive style of rickshaw art. Rajshahi and Dhaka, from where rickshaw art first began, is most adventurous artistically. Chittagong and Sylhet are conservative and Comilla displays simple designs.

Taj Mahal, minarets, mosques, birds, animals, boats, natural scenery, flowers, pictures of film heroes and heroines, aeroplane, Mukti Joddhas and religious motifs are painted with enamel paints on rickshaw bodies. At times, designed appliqués are strewn on the rickshaw hoods. Today roughly 4 lakh rickshaws ply in Bangladesh, of which more than a lakh is in Dhaka alone.

Rickshaw art with its blaze of colours has attained the status of Bangla folk art. Branded lifestyle shops such as Aarong and Jatra in Dhaka today sell small prototype models of rickshaws. South Asian and foreign tourists buy these as souvenir. These are also exported to Europe.

“The models are inspired by the big rickshaws which is the most popular mode of transportation in Bangladesh. The rickshaw art motifs is also used on bedcovers, table clothes, cushion covers, curtains, etc.,” said Majuri Sanchita Sriti, a designer of Jatra.

These rickshaw souvenirs that measure roughly 11inches in height, 10 inches in length and 4 inches in width are made of galvanized tins, rot-iron, bamboos, silver-coloured galvanized wires, cane and wood. Those made of cane, wood and bamboos are not painted but polished. “For painting the rickshaw toys and other products displaying the rickshaw art motifs, we use non-toxic paints. It is a very popular item on the shelf,” said Aarong Export Manager Parveen Shahnaz. The price of these rickshaw toys varies from 500 Taka to 1,000 Taka.

Incidentally, the rickshaw art motifs are so popular that Aarong is using the art form on top of trays, saucers and plates, suitcases, boxes, domestic water tanks and filters, photo-frames and candleholders. “People are fond of these motifs,” said Parveen Shahnaz. “In Bangladesh, rickshaw art has influenced the truck art and today similar motifs are found on the body of big vehicles,” added Majuri Sanchita Sriti.

If Kolkata’s hand-pulled rickshaws enthused Dominique Lapierre to write the bestseller City of Joy that became a Hollywood movie, contemporary painters and shooters have framed and exhibited the colourful Dhaka rickshaws in many art galleries of the world.