India’s most feared ‘Common Man’
THE passing away of celebrated cartoonist R.K. Laxman in Pune, India, on Monday came as a bolt from the blue. I grew up reading the Times of India, which was never complete without Laxman’s drawings. His sharp lines and strokes and acute political understanding made him stand out from the crowd. He could describe in a cartoon what writers would take pages to articulate. He would always make you smile and reflect about issues, and was certainly a true genius.
His death, at 93, has led to a flood of memories. It was sometime during 1991 that we at Lokmat Times, the English newspaper from Aurangabad, India, invited him and another journalistic icon, Bahram Contractor, known widely as Busybee of the “Round and About” column, to attend the anniversary of our newspaper. Lokmat Times was then edited by the suave and sophisticated Alok Verma.
We were very excited to welcome him in Aurangabad. My illustrious colleague, the writer Lakshmi Murthy, and I were assigned by our editor to meet them at the airport and take them to Rama International Hotel.
Laxman, his wife Kamala, and Contractor, and his young wife Farzana, were thrilled to be at the event. It was a grand occasion. For people from a small town such as Aurangabad, the arrival of Laxman and Contractor was a big moment. Laxman was a frail man and always had his wife at his side. Contractor and Laxman shared an immense camaraderie and continually cracked jokes. Murthy and I were completely thrilled to be in their company. Later that night, Laxman charmed everyone by sketching a few cartoons in the presence of our newspaper owner and founder Rajendra Darda.
During an interview, I remember him saying to us that he would think about a subject for hours and once he had the idea, he would do the cartoon in a matter of minutes. Laxman was an icon and the common man motif in all his cartoons, struck a chord with all ordinary Indians.
Laxman reflected our point of view. He articulated our anguish. He gave vent to the frustrations of the Indian middle class. He epitomized the changes that we were witnessing in India. He was the chronicler of our times. One of the first things when I landed in Mumbai in 1991, to take up the post of Chief Sub-editor at Bombay Mid-Day, was to call on Laxman at the iconic Times of India building, and went to talk to him for a while. He gave me his blessings when I said that I was starting out on a new phase in my career in Bombay.
He urged me to remain true to my profession and never get carried away by fame. I later wrote down those words in my diary. When I left the Times of India that day, I was almost overcome with happiness because I had met for a second time a man who was both adored and feared in equal measure by the high and mighty in India.
With Contractor having passed away a few years ago, and now Laxman, Indian journalism is all the more poorer. They represented a generation who were determined to do the right thing. Laxman would always remain in the minds of many as the conscience of an entire nation. He has truly been immortalized by his outstanding body of work.