T SAMUVAL ( 1925-2012)
Cartoonist Samuel was born in the Kollam district of Kerala. After several escapes from the line of fire during World War II T. Samuel stepped into journalism with his first cartoon published in the “Civil & Military Gazette” of Lahore during the communal upheaval following the partition in 1947.
On reaching Delhi as a refugee from Lahore he joined “ Shankar’s Weekly” contributing the silent strip cartoon “Kalu and Meena “ and few other social cartoons occasionally , but left after 4 years to join the Delhi edition of The Times Of India as their staff cartoonist, and became famous as the creator of the pocket cartoon “ Babuji” which was hailed as the most popular feature in the Indian Press even by the New York Times.
When the editors Frank Moraes and D.R. Mankekar broke away from the Times Of India to join the Indian Express, they dragged Samuel along with them carrying his popular feature “Babuji” in a effort to boost the circulation of the paper. Samuel remained with the Indian Express for the next three years contributing his daily pocket cartoon “Babuji” and the strip cartoon “Garib” in addition to the regular political round up till he was called back to The Times of India and the Nav Bharat Times by popular demand, and remained there till his retirement in 1985.
In addition to his contribution to news papers he was commissioned by the Community Development Ministry of the Govt. Of India for amusing protagonists of the State sponsored development programmes with scintillating satire and was the talk of the day among the development officers running Five Year plans at the behest of the govt.
As a versatile cartoonist he was also commissioned by the Indian Airlines, the Railway Board, the Indian standards Institution and the National Productivity Council for the sake of promoting public awareness of the comic side of our National enterprises in combating the draw backs of the existing system.
He was also engaged by the WHO for illustrating their rural health programmes in South east Asia.
He has already brought out 3 collections of his selected cartoons as “Babuji”, “The Best of Garib” and “Babuji’s Thoughts.”
“Never a Dull Moment is his ultimate effort in rounding up the hilarious anecdotes in his field of activity from time to time and recorded with unflinching fidelity.
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