Mumbai:
As India's greatest cartoonist, the man who touched the Common Man recovers in hospital. The nation watches for news on R K Laxman's condition.
The 86-year old was hospitalised after three mild stokes. He is being treated for a lung and kidney infection.
"The Prime Minister has sent a message wishing him a speedy recovery," said S M Krishna, External Affairs Minister.
Laxman's work which spans over six decades, chronicled the fortunes and foibles of Independent India.
He is best known for his fearless lampooning of politicians, Jawaharlal Nehru to Indira Gandhi, even during the repressive days of the Emergency to Vajpayee and other leaders of the NDA regime.
"There is another enduring image that he is associated with, the ubiquitous crow. His crows are so animated, they represent to me the moods of the city," said Shyam Benegal, Director.
Laxman was born in 1924 in Mysore in a Tamil family, his big career break came in Mumbai first with the Blitz magazine and then at the Free Press journal where he worked alongside another cartoonist...Bal Thackeray who went on to found the Shiv Sena.
Laxman finally joined the Times of India where his front page cartoon became a legend.
"I begin my day with a look at what the common man is upto," said Gurusharan Kaur, Manmohan Singh's wife.
Through his career, Laxman won many prestigious awards including the Magsaysay and state awards like the Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan. Yet he remained fiercely critical of the political class.
Probably, R K Laxman had rightly said, "I wouldn't say politicians represent the country. I don't think they do. They have forgotten the comman man, they think the common man belongs to them, to serve them."