DCP Bhattacharya — an officer and a cartoonist
The Hindu
The IPS officer from Howrah is a skilled cartoonist, writer and painter
If you ask Dyutiman Bhattacharya whether he is a cartoonist who became a policeman or the other way round, he’ll firmly tell you he’s the former — a cartoonist first.
“Policing is just my job, cartooning is my passion,” Mr. Bhattacharya, 47, an Indian Police Service officer currently serving as a Deputy Commissioner of Police in Howrah, tells The Hindu, when asked how he reconciles the two avatars. “There are surgeons who play the violin — would you ask them the same question?” He then adds, “A policeman is usually at the receiving end of cartoons. I have turned the tables.”
Mr. Bhattacharya — the cartoonist, that is — is a busy man these days. He’s an integral part of the month-long, first-ever Cartoon Mela in Kolkata, hosted by a bookshop called Read Bengali Books in south Kolkata. The festival began on December 5 and is being anchored by the Cartoon Dol, a group of seasoned cartoonists from the city.