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Literary Review
You said it - common man's byline
IT is not by design but just a sheer coincidence that all the books featuring in this column this time around have mediapersons as authors. While Bregman and Hawksley's works opened out to the world as books, R.K. Laxman's The Best of Laxman: The Common Man Seeks Justice and M.J. Akbar's Byline first featured in the Times of India (TOI) and The Asian Age respectively.
By far the most enduring aspect of TOI in fast changing times, Laxman's common man has kick-started the day for regular subscribers of the daily for years on end. Despite being packed into a corner, the daily dose of "You Said It" invariably packs a punch that is far more effective than all the words put together. Penguin India now brings up the tenth in The Best of Laxman series; a collection of 200 cartoons in which the country's best-known political cartoonist comments on the rampant injustice that is part and parcel of Indian coexistence.
Similarly, those who read The Asian Age would be familiar with M.J. Akbar's "Byline". Akbar has now strung together over a 100 of his essays for Chronicle Books. Written over the past decade, these essays have been divided into six sections — Travel; Politics and History; Cricket, Chirping; Sidelines; Memories; and On A Personal Note. Together, they offer a whirlwind tour through the random thoughts of a "travelling purchaser" which is how Akbar views a journalist.
The Best of Laxman: The Common Man Seeks Justice, R.K. Laxman, Penguin,
Rs. 200.
Byline, M.J. Akbar, Chronicle Books, <243>
Rs. 450.
ANITA JOSHUA
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