R. K. Laxman
Encyclopedia
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
) is an Indian cartoonist
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
, illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
, and humorist. He is widely regarded as India's greatest-ever cartoonist and is best known for his creation The Common Man
The Common Man
The Common Man is the creation of author and cartoonist R. K. Laxman. For over a half of a century, the Common Man has represented the hopes, aspirations, troubles and perhaps even foibles of the average Indian, through a daily cartoon strip, "You Said It" in The Times of India...
.
Birth and childhood
R. K. Laxman was born in Mysore. His father was a headmaster and Laxman was the youngest of six boys. One of his elder brothers, R.K. Narayan, went on to become one of India's best known English language novelNovel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
ists.
Laxman was engrossed by the illustrations in magazines such as Strand Magazine
Strand Magazine
The Strand Magazine was a monthly magazine composed of fictional stories and factual articles founded by George Newnes. It was first published in the United Kingdom from January 1891 to March 1950 running to 711 issues, though the first issue was on sale well before Christmas 1890.Its immediate...
, Punch
Punch (magazine)
Punch, or the London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 50s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration...
, Bystander, Wide World and Tit-Bits
Tit-Bits
Tit-Bits was a British weekly magazine founded by George Newnes on 22 October 1881 until 18 July 1984, when it was taken over by Associated Newspapers' Weekend, which itself closed in 1989. The last editors were David Hill and Brian Lee...
, even before he could read. Soon he was drawing on his own, on the floors, walls and doors of his house and doodling caricatures of his teachers at school; praised by a teacher for his drawing of a peepal leaf, he began to think of himself as an artist in the making. Another early influence on Laxman were the cartoons of the world-renowned British cartoonist, Sir David Low (whose signature he misread as "cow" for a long time) that appeared now and then in The Hindu
The Hindu
The Hindu is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded and continuously published in Chennai since 1878. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has a circulation of 1.46 million copies as of December 2009. The enterprise employed over 1,600 workers and gross income reached $40...
. Laxman notes in his autobiography, The Tunnel of Time:
Laxman was the captain of his local "Rough and Tough and Jolly" cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
team and his antics inspired the stories "Dodu the money maker" and "The Regal Cricket Club" written by his brother, Narayan. Laxman's idyllic childhood was shaken for a while when his father suffered a paralytic stroke and died around a year later, but the elders at home bore most of the increased responsibility, while Laxman continued with his schooling.
After high school, Laxman applied to the JJ School of Arts
Sir J.J. Institute of Applied Art
Sir J. J. Institute of Applied Art is an Indian applied art institution based in Mumbai. It is a state government college that was created through its sister school, the Sir J. J. School of Art. The "Sir J. J." in the name stands for Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy, a Parsi philanthropist whose name is...
, Bombay hoping to concentrate on his lifelong interests of drawing and painting, but the dean of the school wrote to him that his drawings lacked, "the kind of talent to qualify for enrollment in our institution as a student", and refused admission. He finally graduated with a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
from the University of Mysore
University of Mysore
The University of Mysore , is a public university in India. The University founded during the reign of Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, the Maharaja of Mysore, and was conceptualized on the basis of a report on educational progress in the United States and Australia, submitted by Messrs Thomas Denham and...
. In the meantime he continued his freelance artistic activities and contributed cartoons to Swarajya and an animated film based on the mythological character, Narada
Narada
Narada or Narada Muni is a divine sage from the Vaisnava tradition, who plays a prominent role in a number of the Puranic texts, especially in the Bhagavata Purana, and in the Ramayana...
.
Beginning
Laxman's earliest work was for newspapers and magazines such as Swarajya and Blitz. While still at the Maharaja College of MysoreMaharaja College of Mysore
-History & Evolution:It was one of the constituent colleges of Madras University and transferred to Mysore University in 1916. It is one of the oldest colleges of South India. It is the first college for higher studies built by an Indian king at the time of British rule. Former President of India...
, he began to illustrate his elder brother R K Narayan's stories in The Hindu
The Hindu
The Hindu is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded and continuously published in Chennai since 1878. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has a circulation of 1.46 million copies as of December 2009. The enterprise employed over 1,600 workers and gross income reached $40...
, and he drew political cartoons for the local newspapers and for the Swatantra. Laxman also drew cartoons, for the Kannada humour magazine, Koravanji.
Incidentally, Koravanji was founded in 1942 by Dr M Shivaram who was a MBBS doctor and had a clinic around Majestic area in Bangalore. He started this monthly magazine, dedicating it to hilarious/satirical articles and cartoons. Dr Shivaram himself was an eminent humourist in Kannada. He encouraged Laxman quite a lot.
He held a summer job at the Gemini Studios
Gemini Studios
Gemini Studios was launched when Thiruthuraipoondi Subramanian Srinivasan bought a film distribution concern at an auction and renamed it as Gemini Pictures also known as Gemini Studios. Gemini Studios served as a breeding ground for innumerable artists and technicians for the south Indian Film...
, Madras. His first full-time job was as a political
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
cartoonist for the Free Press Journal. Prominent Shiv Sena
Shiv Sena
Shiv Sena , is a political party in India founded on 19 June 1966 by Balasaheb Thackeray. It is currently headed by Thackeray's son, Uddhav Thackeray...
politician Bal Thackeray
Bal Thackeray
Bal Keshav Thackeray , popularly known as Balasaheb Thackeray, is an Indian politician, founder and chief of the Shiv Sena, a right-wing Hindu nationalist, and Marathi ethnocentric party active mainly in the western Indian state of Maharashtra.Born in Pune, Thackeray began his professional career...
, was also an employee at the newspaper at that time. Laxman later joined The Times of India
The Times of India
The Times of India is an Indian English-language daily newspaper. TOI has the largest circulation among all English-language newspaper in the world, across all formats . It is owned and managed by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd...
, beginning a career that has spanned for over fifty years.
Other creations
Among his other works, Laxman is known for his distinctive illustrations in several books, most notably for the MalgudiMalgudi
Malgudi is a fictitious town in India created by R.K. Narayan in his novels and short stories. It forms the setting for most of Narayan's works. Starting with his first novel, Swami and Friends, all but one of his fifteen novels and most of his short stories take place here...
stories written by his elder brother R.K. Narayan, which was later made as a serial directed by Shankar Nag
Shankar Nag
Shankar Nagarkatte , 9 November 1954 - 30 September 1990) popularly known as Shankar Nag was a popular actor and director of Kannada cinema. He also directed and acted in the teleserial, Malgudi days, based on celebrated novelist R.K.Narayan's short stories. Besides these, he was actively involved...
. He also created a popular mascot for the Asian Paints
Asian Paints
Asian Paints is an Indian paint company headquartered in Mumbai, India. Asian Paints is India’s largest paint company and Asia’s third largest paint company, with a turnover of Rs 77.06 billion.It is one of the largest paint corporation that operates in 17 countries and has 23 paint manufacturing...
group called Gattu. Laxman has also penned a few novels. His cartoons have appeared in Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s such as Mr. and Mrs. 55 and a Tamil Film "KAMARAJ".
R K Laxman Chair at Symbiosis International University
Symbiosis International UniversitySymbiosis International University
Symbiosis International University is a private co-educational, multi-institutional university located in Pune, Maharashtra, India. It has been given official recognition by the UGC and the AICTE. The National Assessment and Accreditation Council has conferred an 'A' grade to the University...
inaugurated a chair to honour R K Laxman, called the R K Laxman Chair, for research and studies in media and communication, to focus on thought leadership, guiding research and policy formation in media and communication.
Personal life
He was first married to BharatanatyamBharatanatyam
Bharata Natyam or Chadhir Attam, is a classical dance form from the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, practiced predominantly in modern times by women. The dance is usually accompanied by classical Carnatic music...
dancer and movie actress Kamala Laxman
Kumari Kamala
Kumari Kamala is an Indian dancer and actress. Initially featured as a child dancer, Kamala appeared in almost 100 Tamil, Hindi, Telugu and Kannada films throughout her career...
(also known before marriage as Baby Kamala and Kumari Kamala). After a divorce, he married again and his second wife's (a children's book writer) name was also Kamala. He lives both in Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
and Pune
Pune
Pune , is the eighth largest metropolis in India, the second largest in the state of Maharashtra after Mumbai, and the largest city in the Western Ghats. Once the centre of power of the Maratha Empire, it is situated 560 metres above sea level on the Deccan plateau at the confluence of the Mula ...
. In a cartoon series named "The star I never met" in film magazine Filmfare
Filmfare
Filmfare is an English-language tabloid-sized magazine about Indian cinema. Published by The Times Group, India's largest media services conglomerate, in Mumbai , it highlights the doings of the Bollywood film scene...
he painted a cartoon of Kamala Laxman, with the title "The star I only met!".
In September 2003, Laxman was affected by a stroke which left him paralysed on his left side. He has partly recovered from its effects. On the evening of June 20, 2010, Laxman was admitted to Breach Candy Hospital
Breach Candy Hospital
-History:It was established in 1958 at Breach Candy suburb, and designed by an English architect Claude Batley. Many famous Bollywood stars have given birth to their children at this hospital, including Bollywood actress Karishma Kapoor who gave birth to son Kiaan Raj Kapoor in 2010 and actress...
in Mumbai after being transported by an air ambulance
Air ambulance
An air ambulance is an aircraft used for emergency medical assistance in situations where either a traditional ambulance cannot reach the scene easily or quickly enough, or the patient needs to be transported over a distance or terrain that makes air transportation the most practical transport....
from Pune
Pune
Pune , is the eighth largest metropolis in India, the second largest in the state of Maharashtra after Mumbai, and the largest city in the Western Ghats. Once the centre of power of the Maratha Empire, it is situated 560 metres above sea level on the Deccan plateau at the confluence of the Mula ...
. His condition was said to be stable.
Awards
- B.D. Goenka Award - The Indian Express
- Durga Ratan Gold Medal - Hindustan Times
- Padma BhushanPadma BhushanThe Padma Bhushan is the third highest civilian award in the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan, but comes before the Padma Shri. It is awarded by the Government of India.-History:...
- Govt. of India - Padma VibhushanPadma VibhushanThe Padma Vibhushan is the second highest civilian award in the Republic of India. It consists of a medal and a citation and is awarded by the President of India. It was established on 2 January 1954. It ranks behind the Bharat Ratna and comes before the Padma Bhushan...
- Govt. of India - Ramon Magsaysay AwardRamon Magsaysay AwardThe Ramon Magsaysay Award is an annual award established to perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay's example of integrity in government, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society. The Ramon Magsaysay Award is often considered Asia's Nobel...
for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts - 1984 - Lifetime Achievement Award for Journalism - CNN IBN TV18, 29 January 2008.
Multi-media
- India Through The Eyes of R. K. Laxman - Then To Now (CD-ROM).
- Laxman Rekhas-A TOI Publication