A chronicler of contemporary Indian pastimes & eccentricities and a keen observer of piquant humor, Laxman's brush captured the essence & effervescence of daily life in India for decades. A tiny little passport sized You Said It column (& a mute Common Man) is all he needed to put his point across where a long editorial often failed.

Political cartoons were his master strokes. When I was at a Krishnamurti School in Pune, I was lucky to see an autographed collector's issue of Brushing Up the Years: A Cartoonist's History of India, 1947 to the Present.

I grabbed it with the enthusiasm of a young child & thoroughly enjoyed time-travelling with many hard hitting and funny takes on Indian politics. I remember wondering why very few History (& Social Studies) teachers used it as supplementary/reference material given that it was such a rich contemporary commentary on all things Indian? (A similar case can be made for Amul Girl's take on India). 

His brother R K Narayan always had an illustrious ally in Laxman for many a memorable sketches for his fictional town Malgudi.

History is not my area. I would rather speak about my subject, that is science. You may ask what this Dronacharya of Indian cartooning has to say on science. Well, way back in 1982, Laxman had drawn a series of cartoons compiled under 'Science Smiles', a must-possess set of sketches. They were witty, wry & captured the funny side of science so well. They got republished in a not-so-frequently-subscribed-to journal on science education (from the master communicators of Indian Academy of Science) Resonance in mid-90s. Savor some of these.

Air pollution? He nailed it in a manner that's truly his.

Thank you Laxman, for the way...

Published in 2015 in Teachers of India as a tribute.