Laxman has a yen for the Japanese

Laxman has a yen for the Japanese

(This report was published on October 25, 1990 in The Times of India, Bombay)

(Note: I am pained to hear that the Great Cartoonist RK Laxman died today, 26th January 2015. RIP Mr. Laxman. He had liked this report very much acknowledged it before me -- then a wide-eyed fan. His son Srinivas later told me that he rated it among the "best" reports on him. Reproducing the same as a tribute to the legend).

Report by Deepak Parvatiyar in Bombay:

What could have happened if the Japanese had not come on the scene fifty years ago? 

"We would still have been using eh same telephone model that Graham Bell invented," says Mr. R.K.Laxman, the noted cartoonist and writer.

"Although not a Japanese expert at all", Laxman was delivering a lecture on "Impressions of Japan", jointly organised by The Consulate General of Japan and the National Centre of the Performing Arts, here today.

The audience, including some Japanese ladies,adored the "free style" speech -- "a style I am used to" -- lasting about 20 minutes.

Mr. Laxman recounted his association with Japan right from his childhood, when in Mysore, he was introduced to the word, Japan, by a hawker who used to sell inexpensive toys such as green frogs and butterflies with "Made in Japan" labels on them.

In high school, he reminisced, he came across Japan through karate and later through things like Haiku poetry and Zen Buddhism. He said Japan had made its impact "even though our outlook was English under the British rule".

In his inimitable style, Mr. Laxman narrated his visit to Japan in April. And at one stage he had to tell the cheering audience, "It is not a joke at all".

He appreciated the disciplined life style of the Japanese and observed that although the Japanese were marching so fast, their culture was rooted in the ages. "The robots will not take over Japan," he said. But Mr. Laxman seemed to have found one area where the Japanese were wanting. They were not good at cartooning. "Though I noticed the people reading some sort of comics, they were not satirical and political,"he said. He recounted his encounter with a cartoonist who was also a grandmaster of Akido -- a Japanese martial art for self-defence.

Mr. Laxman also narrated how, after the Akido demonstration, he had observed that with the Japanese art of self-defence everybody would be defending each other. "So there will be a perfect peace on earth," he concluded amid laughter.

MR. J.J.Bhabha, the chairman of the NCPA, described Mr. Laxman as "the world's greatest living object". 

"Through laughter he brings out the truth and ugly facets of life," he said.

The consul general of Japan said that the Guinness Book of World Records must note that Mr. Laxman has been working for one organisation for the last 40 years.

Mr. Laxman's 12 expressive sketches of moments in Japan's daily life have been exhibited on the foyer of Little Theatre from October 22 to 28, as a part of Japan Week celebrations.