Mumbai, Feb 1
The proposed memorial to
legendary cartoonist R. K. Laxman, announced by Chief Minister Devendra
Fadnavis in Pune last week, must be erected in Mumbai, his family has
urged.
"The CM was very kind to announce the memorial, but the
location has not been specified. We, especially my daughter Rimanika and
wife Usha, are keen that it should come up in Mumbai, where Laxman
spent over seven decades of his life and The Common Man was born," son
Srinivas Laxman told IANS.
He said that it was the vibrant and
never-say-die spirit of the ordinary Mumbaikar that inspired the image
of Laxman's bespectacled creation - The Common Man - always silent with a
confused and bewildered expression at the antics of politicians,
generally in his trademark check shirt with dhoti, and a tuft of hair
clinging to the sides of his worry-marked pate.
Srinivas, himself
a retired journalist from The Times Of India (ToI) and now a specialist
writer on space exploration, said that his father started his
cartooning career in Mumbai and walked the streets of the city, saw it
developing into a global financial centre and chronicled it through his
sketches.
"He had a long, 60-year old friendship with another
great Mumbaikar and cartoonist, the late Bal Thackeray. They used to
have lunch and tea at Chetna Restaurant in those days, laugh and joke.
Before his death, Thackeray had visited my dad in Pune," Srinivas said.
During
lunch breaks, or on lean working days, Laxman and other senior editors
of ToI would go for walks in the old, bustling Dalal Street (before the
29-storied BSE Building came up in 1980), Strand Book Stall, Jehangir
Art Gallery, the Colaba Causeway, Flora Fountain, and other parts which
comprised the CBD (central business district) of Mumbai, Srinivas said,
explaining how his father got inspired for his works which became
historic creations.
In the 1940s, when Laxman first came to
Mumbai, he lived in the Mirabelle Hotel - which no longer exists - at
Marine Lines and then at other smaller places before moving to his flat
in the posh Breach Candy area, where he spent 70 years of his life.
Owing
to practical reasons - the Mumbai building does not have a lift - the
86-year old Laxman shifted to Pune in April 2008. "But, his heart always
beat for Mumbai. He always wanted to return and live here," Usha said.
In
fact, during his frequent visits from Pune to Mumbai, Laxman enjoyed
going for long drives in various areas and loved to watch the crowds at
Churchgate, Marine Lines, the Chowpatty Beach and the bhelpuriwalas, the
CST and the vicinity of ToI, as also some other old haunts, and always
appeared pleased and excited.
On a more personal level, the
family would miss Laxman's delightful annual 'Happy Birthday gifts' in
the form of a sketch of Rimanika or Srinivas, and also doting
daughter-in-law Usha.
"Practically from my birth, he used to make
at least one annual sketch on my birthday. Later he did some for Usha,
who was very close to him, and then regularly for his grand-daughter
Rimanika," Srinivas said.
Once, during a college event, the young and shy Srinivas was billed as R.K. Laxman's "Greatest Creation"!
"But, we took it in our stride..." he laughs today over the incident in a south Mumbai college over four decades ago.
According
to the family, a Laxman memorial in Mumbai would be a befitting tribute
to both the great city and its prime resident, The Common Man, whose
statue is already installed at Worli.
(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at [email protected])
