WHEN I INCLUDED A WHOLE CHAPTER ON CARTOONISTS IN MY BOOK ON Journalism ‘A TOWN CALLED PENURY – the Changing Culture of Indian Journalism’, I did not even mention Mangesh Tendulkar, the cartoonist who died a few days ago.
That was because of my ignorance about many cartoonists in language publications, like Tendulkar was in Marathi periodicals. But his one cartoon on death (see above) published following on his own death — made me think deeply about our own lives and achievements, the pride and ego about a momentary ‘greatness’ soon forgotten.
That was what Tendulkar’s cartoon was about. For the uninitiated the top letter on the tomb- stone (in Marathi) is ‘Kai‘ (short for Kailaswasi – meaning ‘now in heaven’) an equivalent of ‘the late’. Under it ‘Mi‘, in Marathi means ‘myself‘. It is, therefore, about his own tombstone getting the treatment which poles and such structures usually get from dogs. Continue reading Idiot’s Tale Signifying Nothing