There is this beautiful line in Marathi: 'तुझे आहे तुजपाशी, परी तू जागा चुकलासी' ...You have what is yours, but you are (looking) in the wrong place...Now can there be any better visual expression of the words above than the following picture of Mr. Kaplan?
For me such pictures make the art of cartooning great.After seeing this picture, I just stopped doing what I was at my PC and stared away from the screen.
As a kid I really used to enjoy this myth of Hindu god Ganpati told by my mother:
"...Parvati declares a race around the universe between the ponderous Ganesha and his younger brother, Skanda or Kartikeya or Murugan. The younger boy takes off on his swift peacock vehicle swift as lightning, leaving the slow Ganesha with his pitiful rat vehicle far behind. Thinking a moment, Ganesha realizes that his mother and father themselves constitute the entire universe. He simply walks around his mother and father (प्रदक्षिणा) and wins the race. "
('Encyclopedia of Hinduism', 2007 by Constance A. Jones and James D. Ryan)
On the subject of 'one has what is his but one is (looking) in the wrong place', I think of another brilliant cartoon.
Artist: Vasant Sarwate (वसंत सरवटे), 1959
[ from: "Sarvottam Sarwate" editor: Avadhoot Paralkar, Lokvangmay Gruh, 2008 ("सरवोत्तम सरवटे" संपादक: अवधूत परळकर, लोकवाङ्मय गृह)]
Caption in Marathi reads:
"गोप्याʃ ʃ ʃ ʃ गधड्या ʃ खळीचा कागद कुठाय..."
("Gopya ʃ ʃ ʃ ʃ idiot ʃ where is the paper containing glue...")
Now, I don't know how many young people can appreciate this great cartoon because the technology has changed decisively. In the age of Fevi-stick one may not appreciate what once was a very popular glue in middle-class Maharashtra: 'Khal' (खळ).
'Khal' used to be made using rice paste. As a kid I have used it to make kites. 'Khal' used to be stuck to a paper to be passed around and could cause minor accidents and misunderstandings as in the picture above.
Another example of 'तुज आहे तुजपाशी । परी तु जागा चुकलासी'?