The ‘Common Man’ I had moved with

I got a chance to meet in person the legendary cartoonist and a great human R K Laxman, who passed away in Pune on Monday, during his three-day visit to the city way back in 2001.

I got a call from Ashok Kumar of Ashok Book Centre one evening asking me to take off for three days to accompany a ‘visiting dignitary’. On probing, he reluctantly leaked the name – R K Laxman – leaving me speechless for a moment. I could not believe my good fortune of being able to meet in flesh and blood the creator of Common Man.

After taking permission from the then Chief of Bureau of

The Hindu R. Sampath, I took the opportunity of a lifetime to spend three days with an artist who recorded every sight with his mind’s eye. RK Laxman’s ‘Servants of India’ was released by former Mayor D.V. Subba Rao at a function.

Laxman’s wife Kamala Laxman went around the city with my daughter Sahiti and Ashok’s children Aravind and Alkananda in tow. She had lived here when her father had served as district Collector, she recalled. The next day, we were headed for Araku in a car. Laxman was not happy with the car as he had considered only ‘Ambassador’ a car.

Near Borra junction, he saw a couple of trees positioned in an interesting pattern. He studied it and wanted me to photograph it. Every sight he saw he watched from different angles, capturing it in his mind’s camera, put away for a future use. Laxman was overwhelmed when a lungi-clad resident had recognised him and asked him whether he was the famous cartoonist. He was bowled over by the colourful sight of a shandy near Anantagiri and, like a child, wanted every sight captured and recorded.

I managed to get all the photo prints ready and handed them over to him at the railway station. It was his turn to be surprised and he noted that it was the first time that anyone had delivered photographs so quickly. He autographed for me a picture of himself taken by me.