I am indeed delighted to participate in the Inauguration of the Exhibition of the selected works of Shri R.K. Laxman. My greetings to the members of Nani A. Palkhivala Memorial Trust and the Prakash Bhandari Memorial Trust, the community of cartoonists, artists and art lovers, participants and distinguished guests. I have seen the beautiful exhibits and they communicate ideas, explodes myths, generates beliefs, and shatters dogmas through the wonderful works of arts and cartoons. Shri R.K. Laxman is a great friend of common man and he is internationally known for his vivid portrayal of various problems faced by the common man in his day-to-day life. Radiating silence of his common man, is a non-lethal weapon to match the power and strength of Ahimsa movement.

Art Elevates the Spirit

Art is a benign expression of the innate beauty in nature. Be it cartoon, sculpture, literary composition it elevates the beautiful spirit of life for everyone to see and enjoy. Such spirit silently but eloquently conveys the message of love, humour, affection and peace. This exhibition will assist in unraveling the hidden talents and use the latent potential in the younger generation to bring out the beauty of life in its noblest forms. Life gets on to a higher, better and more civilized plane imparting meaning and depth to human existence and justifying and vindicating the purpose for which life was evolved. What more can you ask for, what more can you look for in a strife-stricken world where eternal human values are being mercilessly trampled upon and the beauty of life lost in relentless materialistic pursuits.

Articulations

Recently, I happened to study a book called "Articulations" - Voices from the contemporary Indian visual art. I was searching in the book about what is the unique quality of the great community of visual art and painting? What is their medium? What is the relationship and status of the society and the artists? Is there any connectivity between the medium of artists like ink and brush; and the society. While R.K. Laxman loves painting crows for it stands out against any background, whereas KK Hebber is inspired by rhythmic movement of lines. When MF Hussian says the paintings are the output of the society, it means: if the society is a mediocre society, you will get mediocre paintings, if the society is intellectual and prosperous, the paintings will reflect the situation. From these Articulations, definitely I realize that every painter and artist is a unique personality, in search of beauty out of every event, which enriches him. I tend to agree with one of the artists, who say that the artists have to have "partnership with known, unknown will express itself." This takes me to an event that took place recently.

My Experience

Some time back I composed a poem in my mother tongue and translated it into English, titled "Life Tree". The message in the poem was celebration of life. While composing I never thought that the poem can be given life, beauty and creativity as I visualized. That is the time a young artist came and stayed with me in Rashtrapati Bhavan to picturise the natural beauty of Rashtrapati Bhavan and the Mughal Gardens. He stayed with his family for two weeks and has created beautiful canvases bubbling with full of life. I can see in the paintings beauty of the flowers, smell the fragrance of the flowers, and taste the honey in the flowers and speaking to me with poems. When Manav came across my poem "Life Tree" he fell for it and he took seven days in the beautiful environment of the Mughal garden for transforming "Life Tree" into a speaking tree. What a beautiful creation? First time I realized painting and poem intertwined with the imagination of a painter, which leads to the birth of a new creation. That new creation touches your heart, smoothens your feeling and transmits beauty and peace of the combined art into every artistic person and showers happiness in his or her mind and soul.

Cartoonist, artists and scientists are heroes of the imagination or of the deep insight into the nature of things. A painter appears to completely visualize the picture with his imaginative skills and creativity before beginning to paint. This I can clearly see in the case of dancers also. This is what the painter Hebber calls as the rhythmic movement. Now I realize that the lines are capable of singing and dancing, the paintings reveal that.

A Novel Present

Recently I had an opportunity to meet Shri R.K. Laxman in Rashtrapati Bhavan. It was a great pleasure interacting with this great personality. After his visit while leaving Rashtrapati Bhavan he presented a beautiful cartoon of Lord Ganeshji drawn by him. I was trying to understand what Shri Laxman wants to convey through this cartoon. When I went through I found that Shri Laxman had drawn the common man in front of the Lord Ganeshji with folded hands. He beautifully conveys with inbuilt humour the plight of the common man. The common man has lost all the hope and he has reached the altar of God and prays for his better way of life. Of course, in the comment, my friend, RK Laxman has marked me certain affectionate words. I realize now, it means, my mission has to be to lift the common man's life to prosperity. What a beautiful thought! Can there be a more powerful method of communication? Thank you Laxmanji.

Wit and sagacity of Laxman

I had occasion to go through his book "Brushing up the years" which was presented to me, and savour the witticism and sagacity displayed by Shri RK Laxman in his various cartoons so intelligently and thoughtfully. Whether it was his cartoon in which he observed that living in India was not very different from living on the moon (page 28), or the Common Man in a pensive mood on the threat to democratic framework through unrest on various issues (page 43), or the common man buying the season ticket after the fare was hiked by 200 per cent (page 75), or India winning the Hockey Gold Medal in the Moscow Olympics which was boycotted by several western countries (page 86), or introduction of the post-independence generation to Mahatma Gandhi through Richard Attenborough's Gandhi (page 94), or the "friendly neighbourhood" in the context of the Bhopal Gas disaster (page 102), or some skeptics confusing Mahatma Gandhi's statue with that of Ben Kingsley (page 116), or the omnipresent traffic jam even in a metropolitan cities (page 117), or the two faces of India with MiG 29 crashes galore on one side and celebrity endorsements on the other (page 250), or the strange contradiction of potholes and cell phones governing the lives of the Indians (page 293) - Shri Laxman's cartoons, all pack punch and power carrying his unmistakable signature displaying his immense capacity to observe, analyse, learn and convey to his fellow beings, what the lesser mortals apparently do not observe and discern. Life even for the Common Man becomes worth living with Shri Laxman's wit and wisdom in full cry. To laugh and make others laugh and to think and make others think is the unique gift of every cartoonist of repute. Shri Laxman excels himself in this.

Art and Culture

This cartoon exhibition Laxman Rekha is a mirror that shows a dimension of our proud heritage. It reflects our way of life, how our ancestors lived, what we cherish and often what we miss. Above all, the exhibition brings out the creativity of Shri Laxman. The exhibition reminds us how newer technologies have influenced our life, and dimensions of newer languages, newer expressions and newer way of life. They are reminders of where we came from. They give us a great pleasure by satisfying our inner urge to see what we are missing in this "modern world".

Conclusion

Although all men are created equal, the fact remains that some of them consciously develop their faculties to such magnificent proportions that they come to be known as the "gifted lot". Such people have always held a tremendous fascination for me and among them the cartoonists do occupy the pride of place. There are an exalted category in themselves and what many others achieve through long-winded processes of prose or poetry, they achieve with a few strokes of their pen conveying oceans of meaning in the most picturesque manner. There is a message in every cartoon and it hits the nail with tremendous humour and without any rancour.

In a few lines sketches every day, Laxmanji captures the soul of the nation, its agony, its joy and also gives pointers to our future. He pours his genius into the works of art for the awakened eye to see, feel and understand - what India stands for or ought to stand for from the perspective of the common man. His life time collection of precious and original art work symbolizes our true nature within and outside the political, social, cultural ethos of our country. This work, I am sure will inspire people of our country particularly the youth and motivate them to lead better lives while smiling at our own follies and growing stronger in a truer understanding of ourselves.

I congratulate the members of Nani Palkhivala Memorial Trust and Prakash Bhandari Memorial Trust for promoting art among the art loving community of Jaipur and create societal awareness among the youth.

May God bless you.

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