Cartoons are undoubtedly a very powerful communication medium since they use pictures to communicate and since they blend with the message to be conveyed. It is very interesting to study and analyse the way cartoons have become very effective as a powerful communication medium. The cartoons of R.K. Laxman, which appear every day in the news paper "Times of India," are a natural choice owing to their having been one of the most popular, lasting, and having deep relevance to the every day life of the ordinary citizen.

The cartoons of R.K. Laxman fall largely under the theme of socio-political affairs and therefore deal with the current political situation, economic order, and every day life of the ordinary citizen. As an introduction to the compilation of his cartoons under the title "You said it", R.K. Laxman remarks, "My cartoons are drawn with the object of producing a laugh or at best a smile, but many readers believe that they have a deeper social purpose". But there can be little doubt that his cartoons do more than merely make us laugh. In a very subtle way, we identify ourselves with the environment, situation, and characters that he creates, and we realise that it's all for us and about us.

It is the aim of this seminar to analyse the aspects of visual semantics in his cartoons to better understand how any ordinary citizen identifies the various environments, situations, and characters and their own relationship to them.