It used to be a habit for years after waking up in the morning, while still rubbing my eyes with half asleep energy, I used to crawl to front door, open it, step out and pick the newspaper; step in, bolt the door and look at the front page of the newspaper to see what Common man is saying today.
The Common man, who made me smile for years and the millions of Indian smile every single morning for close to sixty years is recovering in Mumbai's hospital after suffering from three mild strokes.
Rasipuram Krishnaswamy Laxman aka 
"Common man", the Mysore-born
cartoonist who, for close to six decades,
has every morning shown politicians
what windbags they are.
A one-man institution of political humour,
a national resource of satire is what
he has been universally acknowledged as.
It is really impossible to imagine the
Times of India without his pocket cartoons
("You Said It") tucked away in the corner
of the front page, or his single-panel
political commentary that reflected
the political situation or public
sentiment of the day.
As per Wikipedia, this is how concept of Common man came in -
"The Common Man is the creation of author and cartoonist R. K. Laxman. For over a half of a century, the Common Man has represented the hopes, aspirations, troubles and perhaps even foibles of the average Indian, through a daily cartoon strip, "You Said It" in The Times of India. The comic was started in 1951.
When Laxman began to draw cartoons in “The Times of India”, he attempted to represent different states and cultures in India. In the rush to meet deadlines, he began to draw fewer and fewer background characters, until finally he found only one remaining - the now-familiar Common Man. The Common Man generally acts as a silent witness to all the action in the comic."
I have always been an aficionado of his sense of humour and his impeccable way of using satire to make a lasting impact especially when public memory is so mercilessly short. How much he pays the attention to the details and depicts the ambience of a particular situation so magnificently through a few strokes of the pencil. His ability to provoke thought has been a hallmark of his work.
Just before putting this here, I searched Google to know more facts about him and was overjoyed to see so many Blogs on him in particular from noted media persons who claim to be close to him and his work.
Here is one excerpt from one Blog that I could not resist to include here (not to mention that how easily I got equipped with so many adjectives from all these Blogs):
"Governments have come and gone, issues have captured our imagination and then faded away, politicians have risen and fallen, deceived us, failed and disappointed us, but one man has stayed true, soldiering on, vigilant, tireless like the fabled crow that dropped pebbles into a pitcher with little water. At a moment when he is in critical condition, I can only pray that R.K.Laxman gets another shot, that the man who made us think, and laugh, may yet have the last laugh, because without him, there would be no credible opposition left."
Another Blog puts it as -
“R. K. Laxman cannot be called a cartoonist alone. He has played a larger role in awakening us to the social, political and bureaucratic tangles through his quiet humour. R. K. Laxman has successfully managed to enthuse the people with humour about the mundane happenings. Some of us have been numbed by the continuous flow of scandals and corruption to make us pessimists. His cartoons have brought hope and optimism to us. To those of us who have become lethargic, his cartoons have aroused us to play a more active role than be mere spectators."
Who can forget his full of life cartoons in TV serial 'Malgudi Days'?
His wry observations and comical anecdotes are so lucid that even a Karan Johar’s or Ekta Kapoor's glycerine audience can understand what’s happening around him.
Sometimes stating the obvious, but never far from the truth.
And now, truly inspired from this Common man, the living legend, here is my effort to put something without speaking anything.
Knowing my nature, I know how difficult it is to be mute and still say everything.
Wish I could draw even a fraction % of what he does and avoid depending on Google Image and MS Paint.
I pray God for his fast recovery and hope he gets well soon!
