The Morning a Phone Call Changed How I Saw Myself
Personal Story
I had just finished my HSC exams. That strange, quiet stretch of time when college is over but university life hasn't started yet. Only admission exam preparation, model tests, and ISSB preparation, and just waiting to see what would come next.
Then one ordinary morning, my phone rang. It was a call I did not expect. I had won a prize in the TIB Anti-Corruption Cartoon Competition Bangladesh 2016, one of the most recognized cartoon competitions in the country. My entry had placed in the Junior group.
I remember sitting with the phone in my hand for a moment, not fully processing it. I was eighteen, fresh out of exams, with no clear sense yet of what direction my life would take. And suddenly, something I had drawn quietly, without expecting much, had been noticed and honored on a national stage.
Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful. I only aim at the powerful.
Molly Ivins
Journalist
The idea behind the piece was simple, but it meant a lot to me. In nature, cats hunt rats. Rats are small, and alone, they are afraid. That is just how it works.
But I wanted to draw a different scene. In my cartoon, the rats are not scattered and frightened. They are standing together, shoulder to shoulder, facing the cat as one group. And it is the cat who looks nervous. Sweating, wide-eyed, backing away.
That was the message I wanted to give. When people stand together, even the biggest threat can be made to hesitate. Corruption thrives when people feel small and alone against it. But unity changes the equation entirely. The powerful only stay powerful when the rest of us stay divided.
The Cartoon that won
Looking back, this moment came at exactly the right time. I was standing at the edge of adulthood, unsure of what path to take. Winning this award, in a competition that carried real weight and recognition across Bangladesh, gave me something I did not know I needed: proof that what I made with my own hands could matter to other people.
It boosted my confidence in a way that stayed with me long after that morning. It was one of the first signs that art, and the ideas behind it, could be a real part of my future.