Indian Legendary Cartoonist R.K. Laxman dead
Cartoon courtesy of The Times of India Group. Copyright: Bennett, Coleman and Co Ltd. All rights reserved.
Cartoonist R.K. Laxman 94, creator of the iconic ‘The Common Man’ and made millions smile every morning by capturing their moods in the space of one column, died in a Dinanath Mangeshkar private hospital in Pune on 26th January 2015 evening after a urinary tract infection and lung problems (multiple organ failure.
Laxman, brother of late novelist R.K. Narayan, is survived by writer wife Kamala, retired journalist son Srinivas and daughter-in-law Usha. He was renowned for his cartoon creation, which ran for several decades in The Times of India.
RK Laxman’s passion as a young boy growing up in Mysore in southern India, was to sketch. He was the youngest of six sons of a “strict” school headmaster.
Laxman, a reject from prestigious JJ School of Arts in Bombay, saying “drawings lacked the kind of talent to qualify for enrolment in our institution as a student”. He eventually graduated with an arts degree from a university in south India.
Laxman was a big admirer of British cartoonist David Low. He says the “strangest moment” of his life happened in 1952 – he had already worked for five years with the Times of India as its political cartoonist – when he found Low and his wife sitting in his office.
Although he knew values of satire, caricature and democracy, he ensured his cartoons did not produced any toxic side-effects.
Time of India quoted “The coincidence is fortuitous but that should not diminish its significance: RK Laxman breathed his last in the midst of a fierce debate raging across the world in the wake of the murderous assault on Charlie Hebdo”.