The condition of renowned cartoonist R.K. Laxman, who was airlifted from Pune to Mumbai after he suffered a stroke, continues to be critical but stable, family sources said here on Monday.
The 86-year-old Laxman was on Sunday rushed to the intensive care unit of Breach Candy Hospital after he suffered a massive stroke on June 17 in Pune, where he has settled down.
“He was taken to the Sahyadri Hospital but his condition did not show any appreciable change and he suffered two more strokes, impairing his speech. So we decided to airlift him to Mumbai and admit him to Breach Candy,” said the family member, requesting anonymity.
“His condition is now critical, but stable. However, it continues to be a matter of concern for us all,” the family member added.
Laxman has been suffering from diabetes and kidney problems besides some blood infection. Laxman, a Magsaysay Award laureate and winner of a host of national and international honours, is a household name due to his front page pocket cartoons featured for decades in the Times Of India, highlighting the problems of the common man.
He had suffered a first major stroke in 2003 which had hit the left side of his body. Though he shifted to Pune to get away from the hectic life of Mumbai, Laxman — the younger brother of the late legendary novelist R.K. Narayan, who died nine years ago — still continues to work and draw cartoons.
[Meanwhile, Dharmendra Bhandari, a close friend of the renowned cartoonist, revealed that Laxman is a very reclusive person and loves seclusion. Bhandari has written a book on him called R.K. Laxman: The Uncommon Man.
“Laxman is a very very difficult person to know as he does not socialise at all. I would say even in his office at the Times of India, where he worked for 60 years, he has never visited anyone’s cabin and nobody else has ever visited his cabin,” Dr Bhandari, who is keen to exhibit Laxman’s cartoons in Britain, told our London correspondent.] —IANS