R.K. Laxman - A Tribute Poem by Ajit Das

‘You said it' - this discomforting reminder
to big egos, stripping away their masks,
bringing out the buffoon from leaders,
outwardly hallowed, inwardly doublespeak,
will no longer appear in cartoons sketched
with brush dipped in humour, not malice,
after decades of visual presence captured
in the fazed expression of the common man.

They were about daily events, not perpetual,
yet timeless in the message exposing mutely
apathy, sloth, corruption of the urban life
in the backdrop of rural poverty, innocence,
bringing laughter to all of us on the platter
of the front page, excepting those lampooned.
Will ever one of his genre sneak from the print,
reminding in the same manner: ‘you said it'?

*** Today is World Cartoonists Day. RK Laxman was
an iconic Indian cartoonist. This poem was composed
by me as a tribute to his memory