The legendary
cartoonist R.K.Laxman is no more. My mind
races back in time to 1978 when I had the privilege of spending three
memorable days with him in Chennai.
I was the Secretary of
the Tamilnadu Chapter of Public Relations Society of India (PRSI) in
1977-78.
Using my connection
with his family I was instrumental in
organizing a
lecture-cum-demonstration by Laxman at
the Connemara Hotel. It was a joint meeting between PRSI and ISTD (Indian
Society for Training
& Development)held in the third week of August,1978. In his typical
tongue-in-cheek
style, Lakshman gave
a talk and also demonstrated on a drawing board how he visualizes politicians.
In his mind, every
politician is symbolized by an object which he draws out first and then
converts it into a cartoon, adding a few
strokes from his creative pen. To draw the cartoon of Morarji Desai,
he first drew a
flower pot and within a few seconds transformed it into a
cartoon of
Morarjibhai. A water jug became Indira Gandhi. It was amazing and looked so
simple.
During this visit he
also participated in other meetings and media interviews all of which
I had co-ordinated.
He was also kind enough to visit my humble home one evening for dinner. During
the informal get-together I found him
very conscious of his celebrity status and was as sarcastic and humorous
in person as he is in his cartoons. He also talked about the difference between
being funny and humorous. He asserted that his cartoons were not funny but tried
to be humorous.
At the airport,
where I had gone to see him off, he asked me to look at him
and framed my
figure within his four fingers. I was puzzled and wondered
why he did that. A week later, I had the
answer in the form of a birthday gift I received by registered post - just two
days before my 36th birthday on 30th August. It was a
caricature of me with amazing
resemblance to his ever popular common man.. Though I was not as plumpy then,
R.K. Laxman visualized what I would be like in future.. The cartoon showed me
dressed in my favourite striped safari suit.
It also captured the small line
on my forehead, a reminder of an accident I had when I was six years old. Truly
a genius with
fantastic memory and powers of observation.
It was a great honour
to have a received a priceless gift from an all- time great cartoonist The cartoon not only occupies a pride of
place in my drawing room but also adorns the cover of my autobiography titled `
Courage My Companion` described as an `uncommon autobiography of a common
man`.
Laxman`s common man?
May his soul rest in
peace!
Feedback welcome on rvrajan42@gmail.com
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI have seen this R.K. Laxman portrayal of you in your place. I always used to stare at it and wonder how accurately it had captured you both in appearance and your personality the way I used to imagine you, the busy guy in a Safari suit! But didn't know the interesting story behind it. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete