city anchor: From mag to book, army of Thackeray toons marches on

The Shiv Sena will soon come out with a compilation of cartoons drawn by its president Bal Thackeray. Son and party executive president Uddhav is leading the project. The party has appealed to people to donate copies of the weekly magazine Marmik that carried the toons.

The book will have select works by Thackeray, who began his career as a cartoonist in the Free Press Journal.

His major work was, however, published in Marmik, which was first printed on August 13, 1960. It set the tone for the party's aggressive 'sons of the soil' stand. The magazine would carry cartoons by Bal Thackeray and film criticism and comments by his brother and Raj Thackeray's father Shrikant.

Three years ago, Sena had organized an exhibition of select works of Thackeray from Marmik to mark 50 years of the publication. Thackeray has said he would like to draw cartoons even now, but his health does not permit it.

"Yes, Uddhav is making all the preparation. There are hundreds of cartoons, I'm selecting which ones are to be printed in the book.Today my eyes hurt. My hand trembles," said Bal Thackeray in an interview.

Uddhav, who has published two books of his aerial photography over the past two years, is personally overseeing the project.

"Yes, we are in the process of making the book. We will release it soon. We have also asked public to donate if they have old copies of Marmik," he said.

Two years ago, Raj had visited Bal Thackeray to return some books and his works he had taken with him when he left their residence in 2005.

Raj has also picked up Thackeray Sr's style of cartoon sketching and has often said that he holds his uncle in high regard. Party leaders said some works of Marmik were destroyed during the 2005 deluge when the Thackeray residence was flooded.

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