He loves crows. He finds them clever and sharp and paints them in twos and threes and even "whole murders of them. They are smart, lively and have a strong survival instinct. The common crow is really an uncommon bird."

He is also the creator of the "common man"- the bewildered bespectacled middle aged man in a checked coat peeping at us from a corner of the Times Of India.

It  has become the voice of India for decades now and Rasipuram Krishnaswami Laxman, is his creator. The common man through all these years has never spoken a word.

R.K.Laxman as he is popularly known, started his career by illustrating his brother, R.K.Narayan`s stories. ( R.K.Narayan is the creator of the well known Malgudai Days  and other stories). He was then still studying at the Maharaja College in Mysore.
He worked with the Free Press Journal for a short while before moving to the Times Of India office in Mumbai more than 54 years ago where he has occupied the same desk and chair all these years.

R.K.Laxman says that he began drawing from around the age of three. "I started on the wall, of course, like any normal child. Parents were more tolerant in those days." He used to live in a sprawling old house in Mysore with his father, mother, three elder brothers and a retinue of servants, a gardener and his dog Rover. His two elder sisters were already married off and Laxman was the youngest. As long as he troubled no one, he was left to himself and he spent most of his time listening to stories from the gardener, climbing trees, chasing squirrels and doing all the things that normal little boys do.

Their father, says Laxman who was a school headmaster was the patriarch of the family and  had the personality of a commander-in-chief rather than a headmaster." Very stern and "formidable", he was very strict about discipline and Laxman says that he was a bit scared of him. He recalls warmly about his mother saying that , " she was a remarkable woman." She was an avid reader and told her children many stories. She was also an excellent sportswoman and excelled at tennis, badminton, golf, chess and many other games. He says in one of his reminiscences, "just thinking about her makes me happy".

R.K. Laxman continues to draw cartoons daily for the Times Of India. Each day in the morning he wonders what he will draw and at the end of each day he is satisfied and happy with his efforts. His political cartoons and the plight of the common man in India are full of wit, irony, humor and satire, but they are never malignant,

He lives in Mumbai with his wife Kamala who is a writer of children`s stories and continues to draw crows.