The Famous Cartoonist

The famous Rasipuram siblings, I mean R K Narayan and R K Laxman, had a neighbour in Mysore who, though a devout Hindu, avidly believed in the Christian dictum of loving one's neighbor. But it was in a restricted sense, that it would be so as long as he could avoid subscribing to an English newspaper. Being an early riser, Krishnaswami Iyer, the patriarch, would, as a rule, have read the paper not much later than finishing the steaming morning coffee. Before the siblings could take possession, the loving neighbour would have grasped it from the round table on the veranda and commenced his elaborate reading, lying comfortably on the easy chair. The perusal of the paper would continue even after they left the house- the first for the college and the second for the school. Both of them would be fuming like Etna in Italy and Krakatoa in Indonesia but could not utter a word of protest lest the father should frown upon them.
One day it happened. The kindly neighbour, as was his wont, sat comfortably on the easy chair and slowly spread the newspaper. Then he saw something in it. He flew into a rage and left the house muttering that he would never give another chance for the naughty fellows to insult him.
The elder one took the paper to see what was in it that irked the man. There was the outline of a goat on the front page. Someone had contributed an outline of a spectacle on the goat's face with the result that it exactly looked like the neighbor. With a broad smile of understanding, he looked at his brother who was 15 years younger.
No wonder, the mischief maker grew into a world-renowned cartoonist.

Jayasala42