BENGALURU KARNATAKA 15/11/2025 : K. Venugopal (left), chairman, Kasturi & Sons Ltd., going through the cartoons exhibition by The Hindu businessline cartoonist Ravikant Nandula, during the inauguration at the Indian Cartoon Gallery, in Bengaluru on November 15, 2025. Photo MURALI KUMAR K / The Hindu
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MURALI KUMAR K
At a cartoon exhibition that gleefully takes digs at Indian politics, loan vendors, and even AI, proof emerges that journalism can still punch up with wit and sharpness. Reflected in the frames is the quiet wisdom of R.K. Laxman’s “common man,” echoing the creator’s own observation: “My common man is omnipresent. He’s been silent all these 50 years. He simply listens.”
K. Venugopal, Chairman, Kasturi & Sons, recalled a moment from the paper’s early days when R.K. Laxman walked into the newsroom on the eve of the launch — a time when it was rare for a business publication to host a cartoonist.
“The first issue was dated January 28, 1994. On the 27th, he happened to be in our office,” Venugopal said. “He drew a cartoon, but he wasn’t satisfied with it. He tore it into two bits and dropped it into the wastepaper basket before starting again.”
What happened next turned into newsroom lore. “The crumpled paper was quickly picked up by Ravikanth Nandula,” he said. “He pieced it back together, and that cartoon is still with businessline.
Venugopal said the incident reflected what makes cartooning timeless. “The medium of journalism may change, but the art doesn’t. Brevity is the soul of cartoons, and the best ones resonate with people regardless of age.”
D. Sampath Kumar, former editor of The hindu businessline, echoed the sentiment.
“Good cartoons really have no expiry date,” he said. “They endure as long as we do, and sometimes even longer.”
Ravikanth Nandula noted, “This work does not span all my career in business life — it is only from the past four to five years,” underscoring the contemporary lens of the show.
Cartoons vs Memes: Coexistence, Not Competition
In an age when social commentary is dominated by memes, reels and short-form visual humour, Nandula dismisses the idea that cartoons are being crowded out by digital culture.
“Pocket cartooning… has remained the preserve of print journalism,” he says. While acknowledging that digital media has transformed consumption habits, he insists memes are not a threat — they are simply a different species. “Meme has evolved as a separate genre of satire and humour. It is not at the cost of cartoons.”
But print is undeniably challenged. “Importance of a cartoon in a newspaper — or reading a newspaper itself — has come down. That is part of the evolution. It may have had its time; it may have it again.”
Published on November 15, 2025