In the 40-odd years that I knew R.K. Laxman, I never ceased to marvel at the singular traits of his personality: boundless curiosity about the way the world spins, a penchant for detecting an oddity in an individual, a place, an object, a situation, a bird or an animal, a zest for harmless mischief, a flair for mimicry and a rigorous discipline that he imposed on himself. All this taken together accounts—largely, if not in full measure—for his prodigious output of cartoons and caricatures and their unprecedented appeal.