Abu Abraham, noted cartoonist whose anti-Emergency works had earned him an iconic status, died here this evening at a private hospital. He was 78.The cartoonist was admitted to the hospital a week ago due to stomach-related complaints and had undergone two surgeries since then. His condition worsened this morning and the end came at 4.10 pm. His wife Psyche and two daughters, Aysha and Janaki, were with him when he died.Born to A.M. Mathew and Kantamma in Mavelikkara in 1924, Abu Abraham started drawing cartoons and caricatures at the age of three. After his graduation, he left for Mumbai in the late forties and joined the Bombay Chronicle as a reporter, also contributing cartoons to the newspaper. He also drew for the Blitz and worked for a short period with Bharat before joining the Shankar’s Weekly in 1951.After two years, Abu left for England and sold five of his cartoons to a tabloid, The Sketch, and the Punch. He was later a contributor to the magazine, The Eastern World, and The Tribune. His cartoons earned him much popularity and before long, he was with The Observer, becoming the paper’s first regular political cartoonist. Later he worked for The Guardian as well.Abu Abraham returned in 1969 and joined The Indian Express. His works, under the title ‘Private View’, were widely appreciated. Abraham’s biting cartoons during the dark days of the Emergency achieved an iconic status in the country’s political history. It is one of the beautiful ironies that Abraham was personally close to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi though he was extremely critical of the Emergency.Abraham was a Rajya Sabha member from 1972 to 1978. The turn of the Eighties saw him slowing down as a cartoonist but he continued to contribute cartoons and write for a variety of newspapers. He spent the autumn of his life in Thiruvananthapuram in a house, designed jointly by Laurie Baker and himself. He has published three books — Abu on Bangaladesh, Games of Emergency (which contains his Emergency cartoons), and Arrivals and Departures. He also produced an animation film No Arks, which won a special award from the British Film Institute.
