"Cartooning is fast declining globally," reasons Laxman. "Earlier you had bad characters like Hitler, Stalin, Churchill and Mussolini. They made for great cartoon subjects. Now we have the Laloo Prasad Yadavs and Narendra Modis. It is becoming dull."

Most old timers agree. Miranda, for instance, found things getting so "dull and monotonous" that one day, he just packed his bags and migrated from Mumbai to his native Goa for good. This was more than 10 years ago and he hasn’t regretted that decision.

"I didn’t try too hard for my subjects," says the creator of such delightful characters as the buxom actress Nimbu Pani, a hirsute actor Balraj Balram and the scatter-brained secretary Miss Fonesca. "Mumbai used to abound in such people. All I did was to train my thoughts on them."

There is also the aspect of changing habits of readers. In the earlier days, papers used to be crammed with news matter (particularly on the front page (with the pocket cartoon providing) the only visual relief. Today, not only has colour entered the front pages, the pictorial presentation and design gimmicks have completely edged the cartoon out to total insignificance.

"A good cartoon makes your day," says Vins (short for Vijay Narain Seth). "So the first thing most newspaper readers used to do every morning was to check the pocket cartoon. Amidst all the horror stories, this was the only item that could bring a smile. Now there are so many distracting elements that people hardly check the cartoon. Editors too find little use for it."

Vins points out that political cartooning in India is a British import. The Punch magazine was a major source of inspiration, till the likes of Rabindranath Tagore and Nandlal Bose Indianised the art. But the credit of actually popularising cartoons goes to Shankar and his Shankar’s Weekly published from Delhi.

"The first generation of Indian cartoonists, including R.K. Laxman and Abu Abraham, was greatly influenced by Shankar’s Weekly," explains Vins. "It set a benchmark for standards for younger aspirants also. So when the magazine folded up in the seventies, cartoonists found themselves rudderless."

But then, talent was never in short supply and even today, youngsters are taking to the profession out of sheer love for the art. "Mind you, there is not a single institution in the country that teaches cartooning or guides budding cartoonists on how to go about," says Savio Mascarenhas, who works for a book publisher.

Chithra Mitra, another cartoonist, who works with Savvy magazine says that he had the option of joining his family’s restaurant business, but he decided otherwise. "My heart was always in cartooning," he says. "I would sketch faces while pretending to guard the restaurant counter."

Despite all the enthusiasm, cartoonists concede that not much headway is being made in the profession. "Most of us like to work in isolation," explains Rao, who switched from architecture to cartooning,. "Some are egoists and do not mingle with others. This explains why Mumbai, even as it is the home of many a great cartoonist, does not have a single association to us to get together."

Cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata have associations, but these are practically dysfunctional. The only effective association is the Cartoonist Combine, set up by cartoonists of the Marathi press in 1987. It regularly holds workshops, on-the-spot caricature competitions and debates on current issues.

Says Srinivas Prabhudesai, former president of the combine: "Nowadays editors don’t give much importance to cartoons. Except for Laxman, there is not one cartoonist who can survive on his craft. So they do other jobs like illustrations and working for animation films."

Besides, a great deal of mediocrity has crept into the profession. "Now any amateur who can put together a few lines claims to be a cartoonist," Vikas Sabnis, an old timer states. "This has proved very detrimental to all of us. After all, cartooning is not a joke. Making people laugh is serious business!" MF