Google commemorates cartoonist RK Laxman with doodle
Google commemorated cartoonist RK Laxman on his 94th birth-anniversary with a doodle on its homepage. "Laxman was best known for his Common Man character, who he drew into his cartoons as a witness to the kinds of hypocrisies and societal inequalities Laxman wanted to silently expose," Google said. It said the doodle was in honour of his "deft artistic hand and sharp, incisive wit."
Known for his famous cartoon illustration "The Common Man" from his cartoon strips "You Said it", cartoonist Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Laxman was born on 24 October 1921. Laxman, born in the then Mysore, was the youngest of six sons of a school headmaster and the only one among his siblings to share fame with his brother, writer R.K. Narayan.
RK Narayan is one of the three leading figures of early Indian literature in English. He is best known for his works set in in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi.
While at Maharaja's College in Mysore, Laxman illustrated RK Narayan's stories in The Hindu newspaper. He subsequently turned to political cartoons, which he drew for local newspapers. Laxman worked at The Free Press Journal in Mumbai with Bal Thackeray, who was a cartoonist before founding Shiv Sena party. He then moved to The Times of India, where he spent the rest of his career.
RK Laxman was a recipient of the Padma Bhushan in 1973 and Padma Vibhushan in 2005, the second and third highest civilian awards in India respectively. He was given the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts in 1984. Laxman was given Lifetime Achievement Award for Journalism by CNN IBN TV18 in 2008.
RK Laxman published numerous short stories, essays, and travel articles, some of which were collected in The Distorted Mirror (2003). He also wrote the novels The Hotel Riviera (1988) and The Messenger (1993), the short-story collection Servants of India (2000), and an autobiography, The Tunnel of Time (1998).
RK Laxman died at the age of 93 at Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital in Pune after suffering from a multi-organ failure. A cartoon that Laxman had made following the successful landing of Mangalyaan on Mars was posted by the Indian Space Research Organisation on its Facebook and Twitter pages on 27 January. The Maharashtra government announced a state funeral and a memorial in his honour.
