The Maharaja ducks, for once

that headline to the Air India story. For this Maharajah, the only one who never lost his privy purse — because he had none to lose — has symbolised wit and wisdom and had remained a perfect symbol of hospitality through the most trying times.

Kookas, who conceived and brought into existence the Maharajah, endowed his progeny with the greatest weapon in the struggle for existence — a highly developed sense of humour. He shared, with the inimitable R.K. Laxman, an uncanny ability to spin laughter-laden punch lines that reflected the times we live in.

One Christmas season, Kookas showed the Maharajah, dressed in a doctor’s uniform, examining Father Christmas and telling the latter: `Sorry, old man. No sleigh-driving. You’ll have to fly Air India.’ When a general election came along, Kookas made a deft play with the phrase `plain simpleton’, that darling of the politician, and made the Maharajah eye the election symbols and observe, “I’m a plane symbolton.” When mountaineering became a very popular sport that was extensively covered by the newspapers, Kookas put the Maharajah on top of Lhotse and had him say, `Lhotsa Boeings!’

The going was good for expatriate Indians till Enoch Powell of the Conservative party came on the political scene in Britain in the seventies.

He introduced strong disincentives intended to turn away prospective immigrants, largely from India and Pakistan. That was quite enough for the Maharajah to come up on a hoarding, saying, `Free to Delhi plus — 10,000 per immigrant.’ It provoked uncontrollable laughter all round, even on foreign shores. How effective are controls? Kookas investigated that issue too. Those were the times when the Government of India held up the loop as the best means of controlling population growth.

The Maharajah duly took note of the loop and quipped, `I’ve been looping the loop for years’. In the Wimbledon season, when tennis gained precedence over all else as a subject of conversation, the Maharajah preached, `Love all, my racket!’ When the privy purses of the Maharajahs of the princely states were scrapped, Air India’s Maharajah came up with an outraged reaction: `Not with my privy pursers, you don’t!’

Pun and fun were integral to every original twist which Kookas turned out. Hardly ever did his punch line fail to bowl the public over. In fact, they could hardly have been expected to hold on to their wickets. Not against the deft spin that Kookas put to his slogans.

He made the Maharajah appear on a hoarding, in Bombay, in 1980, when the Cricket Board organised a benefit match for former skipper G.S. Ramchand. The hoarding said, `Captain calling crew members: Please keep your wickets in upright position.’

The Maharajah has always managed to keep himself upright. Despite dirty battles in his boardroom, despite the shenanigans of the ministry that owns his fleet, he remains unbowed. But this once, he may be forced to duck that critical headline, `The Maharajah has become too gracious a host’, and quip, `There, but for the grace of God, goes Mr Grace himself.’