 |
| Nirbhay 25.10.21 |
Sunday, 24 October 2021
Saturday, 23 October 2021
Window Seat | Weekly 'Slice of Life' column in English | 24.10.21
Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee |
24.10.21
R. K.
Laxman@100
R. K. (Rasipuram
Krishnaswamy Iyer) Laxman, arguably
the most well-known cartoonist of India was born on this day, 24 Oct. 1921 at
Mysore. He
is best known for his creation, ‘the common man’ and for his daily cartoon
titled ‘You Said It’, which appeared in The Times of India from 1951 and
continued for over five decades. It enjoyed a cult status. So did the common
man, who featured in it. Laxman’s common man, a bald moustached man in mid-fifties,
wearing a dhoti and a cheque kurta,
who never spoke a word- was famous all over the world.
 |
| Caricature by Jayaraj Vellur |
Laxman was the youngest of six sons.
His father was a headmaster. Laxman was interested in drawing and illustration
from childhood. As he notes in his autobiography,
The Tunnel of Time: “I drew objects
that caught my eye outside the window of my room - the dry twigs, leaves and
lizard-like creatures crawling about, the servant chopping firewood and, of
course, and number of crows in various postures on the rooftops of the
buildings opposite”
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, Laxman applied to
the J. J. School of Art, Bombay. He was refused admission as the dean of the
school felt his drawings lacked, "the kind of talent to qualify for
enrolment in our institution as a student". Laxman graduated with a
Bachelor of Arts from the University of Mysore.
While still at the Maharaja College
of Mysore, he began to illustrate his elder brother R K Narayan's stories in
The Hindu, and drew political cartoons for the local newspapers. Laxman also
drew cartoons, for the Kannada humour magazine, Koravanji.
His first full-time job was as a
political cartoonist for the The Free
Press Journal in Mumbai. Laxman later joined The Times of India, beginning a career that spanned for over fifty
years.
In his long and illustrious career,
Laxman had played with every shade of humour -- wit, satire, irony, slapstick,
buffoonery, tragicomedy, but had never hit anyone below the belt. And that made
him India's most beloved cartoonist.
Laxman was also known for his
distinctive illustrations in several books, most notably for the Malgudi stories
written by his elder brother R.K. Narayan, which was later made as a serial
directed by Shankar Nag. He also created a
popular mascot for the Asian Paints group called Gattu.
Among his published books are: Brushing Up the Years, (2008), Collected Writings (2003), Distorted Mirror (2004), Hotel Riviera (India) (1989), Laugh With Laxman (1999), Laughter Lines (2002), The Messenger
(1993), Servants of India (2000), Tunnel of Time (1998) and Vote for Laughter (2003).
He was conferred the Padma Bhusan
and the Padma Vibhusan, the second highest civilian award in India. He won
Ramon Magsaysay award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication
Arts in 1984. The Indian Express Group conferred B.D. Goenka Award and
Hindustan Times conferred Durga Ratan Gold Medal. He died on 26 January 2015.
Ganesh
Shankar ‘Vidyarthi’
Ganesh Shankar
“Vidyarthi” was just 40 years old when, on March 25, 1931, he was killed while
trying to rescue people during a communal riot in Kanpur, his karmabhoomi. Mahatma Gandhi had
described it as a “shaandar” (glorious) death, one he envied. “Writer, editor,
publisher, activist, elected representative, friend to young revolutionaries
and, ultimately, a man of his word – Vidyarthi represents”, as Annie Zaidi
writes “both, an ideal and a dilemma for journalists.”
Ganesh
Shankar was born on 26 October 1890 in Attarsuiya, Allahabad into a family of
limited means. His father was a school teacher.
Ganesh Shankar managed to clear
his school leaving examination. He enrolled at the Kayastha Pathshala College
but he couldn’t really afford to study further. He had to start working.
However, he adopted the suffix Vidyarthi (student) for he was determined not to
stop learning.
One of
Vidyarthi’s first writing-editing jobs was at a literary magazine, Saraswati, but his heart lay
in current affairs. He started writing for Karmyogi (founded by Pandit Sundarlal, himself a
revolutionary Ghadarite) and worked for Abhyudoya
(The Awakening, founded by Pandit Madan Mohan Malvya). It so happened that he
fell ill and had to leave for Kanpur from Allahabad on 23 September 1913. While
he was in Kanpur, a discussion with his friends led to the idea of publishing a
newspaper from Kanpur. With barely a month’s preparation Pratap was launched
as an weekly newspaper on November 9,
1913.
When
Pratap was published Mahavir Prasad Dwivedy sent a couplet in Hindi as a form
of blessings to him. It read Jisko na nija Gourab tatha nij deshka aviman
hay, woh nar nenhi nar pasu neera hay wo mrutak saman hay. (One who does not have pride of his country
and its excellence, he is not a human being. He is a beast and like a dead
body.) In subsequent times this couplet was carried below the masthead of
Pratap.
Ganesh
Shankar Vidyarthi was an activist-Journalist. He actively took part in
satyagraha and political meetings and was active in mobilizing protest marches,
coordinating protest and also in body politics. The office of Pratap became a
meeting ground of revolutionaries and freedom fighters. He
headed the Kanpur Mazdoor Sabha and contested elections as a Congress leader.
But that didn’t stop him from taking a sympathetic view of young
revolutionaries. He didn’t just shelter Bhagat Singh for a few months, allowing
him space to write in the newspaper, he also facilitated a meeting between the
young Jawaharlal Nehru and Chandrashekhar Azad.
Vidyarthi thought of
communalism as an imperialist construct and blamed the British for creating a divisive
view of India’s history. Ironically Vidyarthi died while he was
trying to rescue people from communal violence on 25 March 1931. Pratap continued even after his death but
without Vidyarthi it lost its fire and gradually faded.
Tikku
R. K. Laxman is primarily known as the creator of the Common
Man, he also created many characters that became famous and associated with
him, for example, Gattu of Asian paints, Srinivas Wagle of the Wagle ki Duniya.
Another name that often used to crop up in his drawings was Tikku.
The ‘You Said It’ pocket cartoon with an outdoor scene would
invariably have this name scrawled somewhere- on bill boards or as a name of a
shop. If you are wondering who was this Tikku- let me tell you- it was the nick
name of his only son, whose official name is Srinivas Laxman. Srinivas also
worked for a while with Times of India.
Tailpiece:
Men, Women
Women are so difficult, they always change their minds.
At 18, they want handsome men.
At 25, they want mature men.
At 30, they want successful men.
At 40, they want established men.
At 50, they want faithful men.
At 60, they want helpful men.
Men are very simple. They never
change their taste for any changing condition in their lives.
At 18, they like pretty woman.
At 25, they like pretty woman.
At 30, they like pretty woman.
At 40, they like pretty woman.
At 50, they still like pretty woman
At 60, still they like pretty woman.
Even at 70 and 80 when they can
barely move, they still like pretty woman.
(Courtesy: Social Media)
+++
Journalist turned
media academician Mrinal Chatterjee lives in Dhenkanal, Odisha. He also writes
fiction and plays.
mrinalchatterjeeiimc@gmail.com
This column is published every Sunday in Sikkim Express and www.prameyanews.com
Sunday, 17 October 2021
Saturday, 16 October 2021
Window Seat | Weekly 'slice of life' column | 17.10.21
Window Seat | Mrinal
Chatterjee | 17.10.21
Scientific Temper
The term ‘scientific
temper’ is broadly defined as "a
modest open-minded temper”—a temper ever ready to welcome new light, new
knowledge, new experiments, even when their results are unfavourable to
preconceived opinions and long-cherished theories.
Jawaharlal
Nehru in The Discovery of India, writes, “Scientific temper is a
way of life — an individual and social process of thinking and acting which
uses a scientific method which may include questioning, observing reality,
testing, hypothesising, analysing and communicating.”
When the
fundamental duties were added to the Constitution in 1976 through Article 51A,
the eighth duty stated: “It shall be the duty of every citizen of India to
develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform.”
This made
the Constitution one of the few that requires the spirit of inquiry and
scientific temper as a foundational aspect of society.
However, in reality we are a nation of people deeply mired in superstition and lack the spirit of enquiry. We have more faith on miracles than science. It has been proved time and again during the Corona pandemic.
For as long as people put their faith in miracles over science, the enlightenment industry will continue to flourish, and its false prophets will keep finding ways to exploit them. This is happening across the world. Countries with more number of poor and illiterate people suffer the most. In Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Mexico, El Salvador, Venezuela and other African and Latin American countries, millions of naive working class and poor people give their little savings to unscrupulous one-man church pastors in the hope for a miracle to help address their respective life challenges.
The most brain washed people in
the world believing in the most ridiculous rituals and beliefs. A corrupt
society openly willing to bribe god himself with offers of jewellery and sweets
in return for passing exams, a good job, recovery from ill health etc. Even the so called educated peole also fall
prey to this.
Scientific
temper is nothing but critical thinking and questioning.
We are
exposed to tons of facts on a daily basis. What we need to do is pause, think
and analyse. The irony is we are doing that.
Why are we so self-centered?
Have
you marked, as soon as a train stops or a plane lands, every one jumps up and
seems to be in a tearing hurry to get out. Many jostle with co-passengers, try
to elbow others to move ahead.
Same
thing happens at many of the temples. While everyone jostles, elbows and
tramples over everyone else, we pray only for our welfare and prosperity and,
of course, for our family. This, again, needs to be appreciated as an act of
seeking ‘individual salvation’ not necessarily (or rarely) for the community,
although our sages said basudheiba kutumbakam The world is our family)
thousands of years ago. The lavish gifts or daana at the temples are often
quite transactional in nature.
What triggers the ‘me-first’ attitude
among Indians that really stands out more in international comparisons? And in
India nobody seems to care or even aware of this trait. Former culture
secretary and present Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar in his article titled Are we Indians too self-centred?
says “ It is quite possible that we
inherited this socially accepted behaviour that shaped our cultural genes and
stamped our ‘memes’, which, in turn, left its indelible mark on our general
attitude to life.
Whatever may be the reason- this bahaviour
needs to change- if India aspires to be Viswa-Guru or to earn from tourism.
Social Media
The more I am reading on and about social media, the more
fascinated I am becoming towards it. It is not just a medium, it is emerging as
an ecosystem with its own grammar and eco system, its own follies and
idiosyncrasies. It is still growing and evolving- after all it is just about 15
years old. It is a big worldwide 'adda'.
'Adda' is a typical Bengali word which has elements ranging
from idle gossip to serious intellectual discourses- all at one go. In Odia
there is a word with almost the same meaning: khati, the difference being khati
is always taken in a negative sense while adda could have both positive and
negative sense.
Where the glass is always full..
Where the glass is always full of beer....
And the friend is high...
Where the snacks are free...
Where the papads are not broken down into narrow
fragments...
Where cuss words come out effortlessly
from the depths of quenched hearts...
Where tireless striving waiter stretches his arm to
grab the tip...
Into that heaven of a Bar, my friend, let me have a
drink!!!
-
RumBeerNauth Touborg
(With apologies to Rabindranath Tagore)
(Courtesy: Social Media)
++
Journalist turned media
academician Mrinal Chatterjee lives in Dhenkanal, Odisha. He also writes
fiction and plays.
mrinalchatterjeeiimc@gmail.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)