RK Laxman, the renowned cartoonist who became voice of 'The Common Man'

“To become a cartoonist, you need three qualities: a sense of humor, the talent to draw, and a sound education.” R K LaxmanR K Laxman was a cartoonist, journalist, illustrator and humorist. For decades, he showed the Indian citizen who we are. He holds some of the highest national and media accolade for his exclusive work on the “The Common Man”. R K Laxman's great sense of humor gave birth to extensive ingenuinty in political satire. Men with like him are rare to find.He was best known for his creation The Common Man, for his daily cartoon strip, "You Said It" in The Times of India, which started in 1951.Laxman passed away at a hospital in Pune on 26th January, 2015 after a prolonged illness at the age of 94. He is survived by wife Kamala and son Srinivas, a former journalist.Let us know more about RK Laxman, the cartoonist who became voice of ‘The Common Man' Rasipuram Krishnaswamy Iyer Laxman was born on 24th October 1921 in Mysore. He had five elder brothers and two sisters. His father was the head master of a school. He was a stern disciplinarian and quite a powerful man. He and his siblings were quite afraid of him. But his mother on the other hand was gentle and an extremely jolly person. Laxman's mother played tennis and was a chess champion too.R K Laxman was born to a family that was financially well –off, hence they had a number of servants working for them. Despite that, his mother loved to experiment with a variety of recipes and was an excellent cook too.Laxman too was a good sportsman. His favorite sport was Chess and tennis. Like most Indian kids, he too loved cricket but with time he stopped playing it. He found it ‘boring' and ‘overrated'.When Laxman was eleven years old, he started ‘The Rough & Tough & Jolly Team'. This cricket team was later immortalized by his elder brother R K Narayan in the story called ‘The Regal Cricket'.Since the age of three, Laxman enjoyed sketching. He would draw on the walls of his house, tables and floor. His parents were lenient enough to allow him. He drew objects that caught his eyes. Dry twigs, leaves and lizard-like creatures crawling about, the servant chopping firewood, crows on rooftops, etc were his objects for sketching.R K Laxman wanted to join the JJ School of Arts but he failed to get through. When he submitted his application along with samples of his work, they wrote back saying, “you show no talent, we can't accept you.”Hence he joined Maharaja College of Mysore and studied philosophy, economics and politics. Laxman enjoyed reading about Aristotle, Socrates and Plato.He started earning at a very young age by making cartoons for newspapers and magazines.His brother R K Narayan, who worked with The Hindu, asked him to illustrate his stories. He made cartoons for My Magazine, and Koravanji (a Kannada) magazine and his brothers.In 1947, Sir David Low who was a cartoonist for eminent magazines invited young Laxman to accompany him to London. He offered him to work with him.Laxman was in London for six months. He also visited Italy, France, Germany and Spain.But his heart was in India. He felt there was no place better than India for political satire.Laxman was invited to China, America, Russia and many other countries. He finally concluded that people there were boring and he needed to come back to India to start cartooning with refreshed energy.When Laxman was around twenty years old, he applied in Hindustan Times, but was rejected for being too young.Then he met with the editor of The Free press Journal. The editor agreed to employ him. Laxman Narayan met Bal Thackeray in this office. It is from here that his friendship blossomed with the former Shiv Sena supreme.After some years, R K Laxman decided to quit the job because he faced immense pressure from the editor who was evidently bias.He later joined the Times of India and worked there for over sixty years.It is here that he created the ‘Common Man'.In an interview, Laxman once explained the concept behind the Common Man. He said, “There is no single attribute that is common to all Indians. So I created a mythical character in a striped coat, with a bushy moustache, a bald head with a white wisp of hair at the back, a bulbous nose on which is perched a pair of glasses, and he has thick black eyebrows permanently raised, expressing bewilderment. He stands for all Indians and goes through life without uttering a word, but watches with amusement the ironies, paradoxes and contradictions of the human situation.”R K Laxman found former PM Morarji Desai an interesting man with ‘idiosyncracies' and various habits. Though he faced some problems with Indira Gandhi during the Emergency Period, he shared cordial relations with Jawaharlal Nehru. The Emergency period affected his work.R K Laxman found it very difficult to make cartoon of Rajiv Gandhi because he was so handsome. So he simply stretched his nose and made him a little fat.Prime Minister H D Gowda gave him most interesting ideas for cartoons because he had the habit of falling asleep all the time and that gave plenty of opportunity.Laxman is very fond of crows. He likes to sketch them.His creations also include the sketches drawn for the television adaptation of Malgudi Days which was written by his elder brother R K Narayan.There is a chair named after R. K. Laxman at Symbiosis International University.He created the character of ‘Gattu' for Asian paints. Laxman has an eye for detail and that is what makes an excellent mimic and story teller. While he worked with the Times of India, he would keep his colleagues engaged by mimicking politicians. He considers himself to be the best cartoonist, in a modest way.He was first married to Bharatanatyam dancer and actress Kamala Laxman. After divorce, he married again and his second wife's (a children's book writer) name was also Kamala. He lives both in Mumbai and PuneR K Laxman has been awarded the Padma Vibhushan by the government. He is also the recipient of Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts (in 1984), Achievement Award for Journalism – CNN IBN (29 January 2008)Several books have been written by India's one of the greatest cartoonists:He Said It!The Common Man Speaks, The Eloquent Brush: A Selection of Cartoons from Nehru to Rajiv, 50 Years of Independence through the eyes of R.K.Laxman, The Best of Laxman series, Hotel Riviera, The Messenger, Servants of India, The Reel World, Brushing Up The Years- A Cartoonist's History of India- 1947 to the Present.Laxman himself has written two autobiographies. One of them is “The Tunnel of Time” and the second one has been published in Marathi entitled ‘Lakshmanrekha'.Laxman's work reflects his carefree spirit. He has never courted controversy but spared no one especially in his political satire. His illustrations are revered till date.