R K Laxman, who was known for his cartoon creation The Common Man, chronicled Indian social-political history and regaled millions of readers daily for nearly seven decades. He was best known for his creation The Common Man, for his daily cartoon strip, "You Said It" in The Times of India, which started in 1951.
Laxman was the captain of his local "Rough and Tough and Jolly" Cricket team and his antics inspired the stories "Dodu the Money Maker" and "The Regal Cricket Club" written by his brother, Narayan. Laxman's idyllic childhood was shaken for a while when his father suffered a paralytic stroke and died around a year later, but the elders at home bore most of the increased responsibility, while Laxman continued with his schooling.
After high school Maharaja's Govt. High School, Mysore, Laxman applied to the Sir J J School Of Applied Art hoping to concentrate on his lifelong interests of drawing and painting, but the dean of the school wrote to him that his drawings lacked "the kind of talent to qualify for enrolment in our institution as a student", and refused admission. He finally graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University Of Mysore. In the meantime, he continued his freelance artistic activities and contributed cartoons to Swarajyaand an animated film based on the mythological character Narada.
Younger to the writer who gave us epics like Malgudi days, we have R.K. Laxman! The man, the commoner, and the common man!
