By Sharanya Gopinathan
Happy World Cartoonists Day!
To mark the day, RK Laxman’s estate has an amazing gift for us all. His granddaughter, Rimanika Laxman, is set to create an extension of the iconic Common Man, which will feature the granddaughter of the Common Man: the Common Woman. Similar to the Common Man, the Common Woman will feature her observing and being part of everyday Indian situations, with a particular emphasis on gender issues, social justice, and economic and political issues.
I can’t stop smiling.
RK IPR, a group of cartoonists, created the character as a tribute to RK Laxman. Indian Express reports that the series, called Common Man and Common Woman had already been discussed with Laxman before he passed away in 2015, and that he’d been supportive of the idea.
It’s unbelievably exciting, and gives you all those lovely nostalgic feelings as soon as you hear it. There’s an image of the Common Woman on RK Laxman’s website, and it does feel very much in the vibe of the original series. The image we can see features the Common Man watering a plant, with the Common Woman leaping out of that plant. It’s sweet yaar.
We don’t know what form the series is going to take exactly, and whether it’ll be as iconic as the Common Man, but we’re hopeful. Whatever it shapes up to be, we can’t help be excited: the idea of a female character in that iconic framework, taking a particularly close look at gendered issues, wasn’t something we ever really expected to see, but we’re definitely so glad to have it.