Aside from his writing, Santosh is now known for his formal, aesthetic expressions of Kashmiri Shaivism through his neo-tantric art that became a hallmark of his style after a revelatory visit to the Amarnath cave in southern Kashmir in 1964. However, Santosh maintained various other aspects of his art practice.

One reason for this could be the difficult and controversial reception of his new works by art critics and the market, both of which were still developing their vocabularies around defining Indianness as a feature of modernist practices that were otherwise learnt from various formal experiments across the world.

He designed special sets of stamps that were issued during the Asian Games in 1982, along with other artists like A. Ramachandran and Chitta Pakrashi.

Santosh’s commercial work also included designing book covers for his writer or poet friends, although the word ‘commercial’ needs to be read loosely here as he did some of this work gratis, as favours to friends, according to his son Shabir. Santosh was a well-regarded portrait painter for most of his career, making portraits of luminaries from the political and cultural world of New Delhi, but his figurative and illustrative work was largely confined to alternate, commercial practices even as he maintained an active relationship with fellow-illustrators and cartoonists. For instance, he was a friend of Sudhir Dar, a fellow-Kashmiri and well-known cartoonist.

CARE stands now for Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere, changed from its former Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe. One of a slew of aid and humanitarian relief organizations formed after the Second World War (in 1945), CARE focuses on problems of global poverty, food security, agriculture and water sanitation among other projects while advocating for policy reform on behalf of poorer populations across the world.

The comic book was printed by N. J. Ardeshir for the Bolton Fine Art Litho Works printing company that was based out of Bombay (now Mumbai) and was operational largely through the middle and late decades of the twentieth century. They are responsible for printing some of the most iconic images in Indian commercial design and advertisement art, including several offset lithographic posters for Air India and tourism posters for Indian destinations such as Banaras (now Varanasi) and Kashmir, among many others.

The government of India was thus a major, recurring client. The press also plays an important historical role as Parmanand Sugomal Mehra, who worked at the company, took it upon himself to lead the creation of a pan-Indian association of small printers and presses, called the All India Federation of Master Printers in 1953.

The story begins with a simple set up: ‘India has a wealth of forests. Many beautiful animals live in them. Some people also live in these forests. This is a story of a small family of these people: The story of Lakshman, his father Jethu, mother Baisakhi, brother Mangal, and sister Phalguni.’

Lakshman is presented as the courageous and likeable protagonist of the story. His father, Jethu, from whom he has learnt most things has taught him the most valuable lesson that was denied him in his own childhood, however, saying, ‘A house without a kitchen garden is not a home….Grow proper food for health, strength and intelligence.’ This lesson underscores the purpose of the comic and highlights the difference between Jethu and Lakshman as acceptable patriarchal models for the village community. ‘Jethu’s health had suffered since his childhood’ because his parents had not known about the importance of early childhood nutrition, which could make children ‘weak and listless’ and cause them to ‘suffer during (their) entire life’.

Jethu is attacked by a tigress and unable to defend himself due to his early life malnutrition. As a sense of gloom settles upon the family, Baisakhi continues her good work by providing healthy food to her children. Soon, harvest season arrives—bringing with it a mood for celebration and festivities. Phalguni, now a young woman, is admired for her good looks and we are informed by a narratorial text: ‘Like most people they didn’t ask how she maintained such good health… she would have answered that proper diet was not only for good health, but for good looks too’.

Soon, the villagers discover that another aggressive tiger is on the prowl. Some of the men think Lakshman may have compromised his masculine valour by ‘sell(ing) vegetables’ on the market, so he is put through a target test, which he aces. Lakshman is further emphasized as the ideal hero who speaks in the voice of the pedagogical and developmental state when we are informed about his education and association with the local school, where he went to help the teacher: ‘…even elders came to listen because Lakshman spoke of such useful things’.