Rasipuram Krishnaswami Laxman also known as R K Laxman born in Mysore, Karnataka was a great political caricaturist/cartoonist. He started drawing cartoons from a very young age. In 1947 he drew cartoons for ‘The Free Press Journal’ in Bombay along with Bal Thackeray.
R K Laxman won many awards; Padma Bhushan in 1973, the Ramon Magsaysay award in 1984 and a Lifetime Achievement Award for Journalism by CNN IBN TV18 in 2008.
He wrote sketches, short stories and travelogues in a collection called “The Distorted Mirror” published in 2003.
Laxman’s drawings or cartoons carry an air of satire on political institutions and politicians and the same goes for his writings. His writing style involved humour, elegance, simplicity and grace. In this book, his short stories revolve around children and their perspectives. Travelogues have given some wonderful insights into human life. Sketches are short, shorter than a short story, with little or no plot at all.
Just like his elder brother R K Narayan, Laxman also tried depicting the simplicity of human life with a punch of anecdotes from the common man’s life.
This book has my heart. The more I read Indian writers, the more I fall in love with them and their writings.
Simplify things 