In today’s Sci-Fi age and super busy world it seems that people are dependent on technology for every small personal or professional reminder; be it remembering important dates, events, important meetings, birthdays or even a reminder to drink water; the human brain seems to be relaxing for all of his work is now done by technology. Considering this fact, the most fastest and prime search engine ‘Google’ makes it a point to remind people of birth anniversaries or extremely important days of various people in different genres who have made it big.
Remembering the world famous cartoonist, RK Laxman on his 94th birth anniversary, today’s Google Doodle takes you back to the past – to the time when the very accredited cartoonist is seen to be drawing the ‘ Common Man’, his most famous cartoon of all time in an environment which seems to be like his study room considering all his books and study lamp lying around.
This Padma Vibhushan honouree artist was born on 24 October, 1921 in Mysore and was attracted to illustrations in magazines of that era from a very tender age. After gaining handful of experience during his internships, he finally bagged his first full-time job as a political cartoonist for the The Free Press Journal in Mumbai where he closely worked with Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray since he too was a really famous cartoonist. The fine artist later joined The Times of India, in Mumbai which gave his career as a cartoonist the much needed boost after which there was no looking back. Beginning a career that spanned over fifty years, RK Laxman chose to make the readers aware of the political scenarios through his ‘You Said It’ cartoon featuring the “Common Man”, a character that showcased the political scenario of the current time.
His bald and spectacled ‘Common Man’ character in a checked coat along with dhoti replicating a common man was what made the people devotedly follow this character and hence the man behind him as well. The character went on to being the mascot for an Air Deccan airline and featured on a postage stamp. He also created sketches for the television adaptation of Malgudi Days which was written by his elder brother RK Narayan and directed by Shankar Nag. The pied piper of Delhi, as RK Laxman was popularly known as, gave people a clear understanding of all the political issues revolving around corruption, scams and other political scenarios which made the readers fall in love with his caricatures. He had also created a popular mascot for the Asian Paints group called Gattu in 1954.
A Padma Bhushan (1973), Ramon Magsaysay Award (1984) and Padma Vibhushan (2005) awardee, RK Laxman’s last birthday was celebrated with much pomp and was covered by the entire mainstream media. In his memory, An 8 feet high bronze statue of his evergreen character, “The Common Man” has been put at the Symbiosis Institute, Pune in front of its Vishwabhavan building.
On account of his 94th birth anniversary, The chief Minister of Maharashtra,Devendra Fadnavis inaugurated a site dedicated completely to the late artist : rklaxman.com. He tweeted this on social media saying:-
Honoured to launch a website on common man’s spokesperson #RKLaxman https://t.co/2ZWb5UJPyc with his family members pic.twitter.com/OyLuBHyHuX
— Devendra Fadnavis (@Dev_Fadnavis) October 24, 2015
Survived by his wife Kamala Laxman and a son and daughter-in-law, the 93 year old talented and intelligent artist left for his heavenly abode on 26 January 2015 in Deenanath Mangeshkar memorial hospital, Pune after a series of multiple organ failure; and received a state funeral.