Laxman took delight in doodling during his holidays in Mysuru and Bengaluru. He would draw them on whatever bits of paper he could lay his hands on. But, the doodles he created till 1975 were all lost. Then, his brother R K Srinivasan gave him a big scrapbook so he could draw on that.
Laxman drew around 95 cartoons and caricatures on the scrapbook over a period of 16 years from 1975 to 1991. These random drawings and sketches that are on display at NGMA now are unique and strikingly different from his published works. He did them for his folks and himself and was unmindful of what others would say about them!
R.K. Laxman's depiction of the common man's response to the Shah Comission
The man who made 'The Common Man' a celebrity, couldn't help imagining how ordinary Indians would have responded to the setting-up of the Shah Commission ''to enquire into the excesses during the Emergency''. The result was a delightful cartoon showing myriad expressions of mockery.
The caricature titled 'Evolution of Narasimha Rao' particularly caught my fancy. It took Laxman only a few strokes to depict Rao, the then Prime Minister as a tadpole and a fish. Laxman's attention to detail is evident in his caricature of Morarji Desai. It depicts the former Prime Minister who was strongly in favour of prohibition to be drinking and playing cards. ''Desai would get so annoyed by Laxman's cartoons that he even called a cabinet meeting to discuss how to stop him from drawing cartoons,” recalls G. S. Krishnan, an 'uncommon devotee' of Laxman, during a gallery walk at NGMA. “However, they could not come to a consensus on that point and Laxman continued,” he adds.
Some of the works in this collection are anecdotal in nature. For instance, the cartoon titled 'The Odds Are Against Us', is based on Laxman's memories of a trip from Mysuru to Bengaluru during which he and his nephew Krishnaswamy had to wait patiently in their car as a herd of goats passed by. His brother's encounter with a ghost has also found place in this collection.
All the works in this collection except one was done with a blue ink ball pen. “The uncommon one, drawn using multiple pens, was inspired by a conversation between Laxman and his brother Srinivasan on God Subramanian and his vehicle, peacock,” says Krishnan, who has made it to the Guinness Book of World Records for having the largest individual collection of cartoons drawn by Laxman. Krishnan has around 20,000 works of Laxman his collection, which are mostly in the form of books and paper cuttings.
Krishnan, an associate director at Cognizant, has fond memories of his association with Laxman. “We would spend a lot of time together. Once he gifted me a statue of 'The Common man,' recalls Krishnan. Laxman, who had a great fascination for crows, was very good at drawing them.” I wanted him to draw crows for me. He said, “I'll do.” But he couldn't keep his promise. So I did crows and took them to him. He liked those pictures a lot and autographed them,” smiles Krishnan, reliving those memories again.
