UNCOMMON MAN Interview with cartoonist R.K. Laxman, from Reader's Digest, December 2004. By Ashok Mahadevan and Mohan Sivanand He’s been one of India’s most popular cartoonists for more than five decades, but Rasipuram Krishnaswamy Laxman is not the merry, benign funnyman many of his fans fondly imagine him to be. He has a mordant view of the world, especially of politicians, and he doesn’t suffer fools of any stripe gladly. Woe betide you if you say something silly in his presence. Work has been the passion of his life, and even the stroke he suffered last year has not slowed him down much. He has to be helped to get up and to move around, but while drawing he remains as fiercely alone as ever. We met the octogenarian Magsaysay-award winner at his Mumbai home on a recent Saturday evening, but only after he’d finished his cartoons for the next day’s paper. After we’d been served fine South-Indian coffee, his testy look made it clear that there was to be no fooling around. ...
"Some of the sweetest things in life are through greatest struggling battles"