Bangalore-based Air Deccan has struck a deal with R K Laxman, India’s most famous cartoonist, to use his legendary ‘Common Man’ character as the airline’s mascot.
When Laxman began to draw cartoons he was inspired by Manas in The Times of India, he attempted to represent different states and cultures in India. In the rush to meet deadlines, he began to draw fewer and fewer background characters, until finally he found only one remaining—the now-familiar Common Man. The Common Man generally acts as a silent witness to all the action in the comic. According to anthropologist Ritu Gairola Khanduri, “Clad in a dhoti and a plaid jacket, the puzzled Common Man is no dupe: his sharp observations miss no detail of the political circus.”
Salman Rushdie, who grew up in Bombay on a daily fare of Laxman’s pocket cartoons, mentions the Common Man in two of his books—his 1995 novel The Moor’s Last Sigh and his 2012 autobiography, Joseph Anton.
A statue of the Common man, created by the sculptor Suresh Sakpal, was installed in 2007 along the sea face on Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan road, Worli seaface, Mumbai.
Picture Credit : Google