Kambalapally Chandra Shekar (16 July 1965 – 19 May 2014) was an Indian

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

known for his political cartoons in English and in

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

Early life

He was born to a

family in

Suryapet Suryapet is a city in the Indian state of Telangana. It is a municipality and the headquarters of its eponymous district. The Government of India announced Suryapet to be developed under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformat ...

, in the

Nalgonda district Nalgonda district is a district in the Telangana state of India. Nalgonda district has the highest number of mandals in the state with 31 mandals. The district shares boundaries with Suryapet, Rangareddy, Yadadri and Nagarkurnool districts ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

. He completed his

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree in 1985 from Nagarjuna Government College in Nalgonda, followed by an MA in

Telugu literature Telugu literature is the body of works written in the Telugu language. It consists of poems, short stories, novels, plays, and song lyrics, among others. There is some indication that Telugu literature dates at least to the middle of the first ...

from

Kakatiya University Kakatiya University is a public university located in Hanmakonda, Warangal in the Indian state of Telangana. It was most recently accredited with an "A" Grade by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council of India on 12 September 2017. ...

Warangal Warangal () is a city in the Indian state of Telangana and the district headquarters of Warangal district. It is the second largest city in Telangana with a population of 704,570 per 2011 Census of India, and spreading over an . Warangal ser ...

Career

He started his career with the ''

Prajasakti ''Prajasakti,'' also spelled as ''Prajashakti,'' is a Telugu newspaper that is published in Andhra Pradesh, India by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) PI (M) It started as a daily newspaper in 1981 with Vijayawada as the centre. Currentl ...

'', a

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

newspaper, in 1989. He later worked for the '' New Indian Express'' and ''

Andhra Jyothy ''Andhra Jyothi'' () is the third largest circulated Telugu language daily newspaper of India sold mostly in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It was founded by K. L. N. Prasad, an Industrialist on 1 July 1960. It is also one of the ...

''. He also founded a forum for political cartoonists in Andhra Pradesh. As of 2011, nearly 45,000 of Shekar's cartoons had appeared in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

, and

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

through his cartoon syndicate ''Shekartoons''. His fourth book of cartoons, ''Gidee Telangana'', was released in March 2010 in

Hyderabad, India Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the '' de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern In ...

. Shekar visited Washington DC, New York, Los Angeles, Ohio, Florida in June and July 2011 on IVLP programme on Political cartoonists among three from India. His last English cartoons book, ''Colours of India'' (2011), was launched in America and India too.

Death

Shekar Kambalapally died on 19 May 2014 after a prolonged illness. He is survived by his wife Chandrakala and his children Nandu and Chetana.

References

External links

''Shekartoons-shekar blog''
2014 deaths Indian cartoonists 1965 births Telugu writers Writers from Andhra Pradesh People from Suryapet Kakatiya University alumni {{cartoonist-stub