Get a peek into the mind of legendary cartoonist R K Laxman at the Indian Cartoon Gallery, where his 97 unpublished doodles will be exhibited from October 15.
Seeing Doodu, as Laxman was known at home, doodling constantly whenever he visited his family in Mysuru, his older brother R K Srinivasan gave him a scrapbook to sketch.
Sketched over a period of 16 years from 1975 to 1991, these drawings are a mix of full-fledged political cartoons and things around Laxman that aroused his curiosity.
One can only guess what Laxman was thinking about when he sketched these images — a house in the shape of a coconut, a musical note transforming into a creature and a pen drawing ink from an “ink well”.
His classic humour is seen in others like the sketch of a man crushed under a large one rupee coin and a beggar with a bowl, full of jewellery and money, whom Laxman calls “victim of inflation”.
Scenes from hearings of the Shah Commission, which inquired into excesses committed during the Emergency and Indira Gandhi, walking on a barbed wire with a halo around her head are among the unpublished cartoons. Former prime minister Morarji Desai, whose prohibition policy Laxman disagreed with, is shown playing cards and drinking alcohol, things the leader regarded ‘social evils.’
Laxman’s family members including ‘Malgudi Days’ fame author R K Narayan are also featured in the book. Dated December 1, 1983, the cartoon shows Narayan with a ghost hovering above him, both looking scared of each other.
On most of the sketches, Laxman has scribbled his humurous comments.
V G Narendra, managing trustee of Indian Institute of Cartoonists, became aware of book’s existence after he met Laxman’s nephew R S Krisnaswamy here.
“When he told me about the book, I immediately suggested that they should be displayed in an exhibition.” The sepia pages were then restored, laminated and digital prints were generated.
As a child, Krisnaswamy had watched in fascination as Laxman sketched. “Often we could not understand what he was drawing. When R K Narayan questioned him about their meaning, he said ‘Anna, just as stories come to your mind, these doodles come to mine,’” Krisnaswamy recollected.
After Krisnaswamy’s father passed away in 1991, Laxman stopped drawing in the book. He does not intend to publish the collection as the sketches are the private thoughts of the artist.