“The Common Man”
started by Mr. Rasipuram Krishnaswami Laxman (24 October 1921 – 26 January
2015). “You said it” was a famous column in the famous Times of India dedicated
to this famous personality. He was born in Mysore in 1921 and was one among the
six sons. Laxman was known as "Pied Piper of Delhi".
One of his
popular quotes is as follows “ I drew objects that caught my eye outside the
window of my room – the dry twigs, leaves and lizard-like creatures crawling
about, the servant chopping firewood and, of course, and number of crows in
various postures on the rooftops of the buildings opposite ”
When he was in
Mysore he was actively involved in drawing cartoons for a local for the local
newspapers and for the Swatantra. He also drew cartoons for Kannada Magazine called Koravanji. His
first full-time job was as a political cartoonist for the The Free Press
Journal in Mumbai, where Bal Thackeray was his cartoonist colleague. Laxman
later joined The Times of India, Bombay, beginning a career that spanned over
fifty years. Gattu was created for Asian Paints in 1954. He also wrote a few
novels starting from The Hotel Riviera. His cartoons have appeared in Hindi
films such as Mr. & Mrs. '55 and a
Tamil film Kamaraj.
His few other creatures also include the sketches drawn for the
television adaptation of Malgudi Days which was written by his elder brother R.
K. Narayan and directed by Shankar Nag. Laxman drew caricatures of David Low,
T.S. Eliot, Bertrand Russell, J.B. Priestly and Graham Greene. There is also a
famous TV serial named after him as R. K. Laxman Ki Duniya.
The Indian common man always remembers the eminent cartoonist. This
great cartoonist stopped drawing on 26 January 2015. Salutes to such a cartoonist!!!