Friends: Tailang an unassuming person

Friends of Age cartoonist Sudhir Tailang, who passed away on Saturday, remember him as an unassuming person who loved Bikaneri delicacies — daal bati, bhujiya and kachori.

Tailang, who died of brain tumour, was a movie buff and wanted to become an usher in a cinema hall. As Bikaner mourns the loss of its son, friends said that Tailang started making cartoons when he was a 10-year-old. “I can still recall when in the 1970s his cartoon was published in a local newspaper. He was elated and got `5 or so as prize money,” Aprnash Goswami, Tailang’s cousin, told this newspaper.

“I met him for the first time during a felicitation ceremony in 1985... Since then, we have been in constant touch and became close friends,” Rishiraj Singh, Kerala director-general (prisons), said, adding that Tailang was a down-to-earth person despite knowing the who’s who of Lutyens’ Delhi.

“Once a senior politician took umbrage at not being caricatured by Tailang for a long time,” recalled Mr Singh.

“During a party organised by the election commission, Tailangda sang Padharo Mhare Desh and everybody appreciated it,” Mr Goswami revealed.

Though most of his professional life he spent in metropolitan cities, he was always concerned about the under-development of his home city.