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 comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

known for his

political cartoons A political cartoon, also known as an editorial cartoon, is a cartoon graphic with caricatures of public figures, expressing the artist's opinion. An artist who writes and draws such images is known as an editorial cartoonist. They typically co ...

in English and in

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

Early life

He was born to a

family in

Suryapet Suryapet, also natively spelt as Suryapeta, is a city in the Indian state of Telangana. It is a municipality and the headquarters of its Suryapet district, eponymous district. The Government of India announced Suryapet to be developed under the ...

, 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 district, Suryapet, Rangareddy, Yadadri Bhuvanagiri, ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

. He completed his BSc degree in 1985 from Nagarjuna Government College in

Nalgonda Nalgonda is a city and municipality in the Indian state of Telangana. It is the headquarters of the Nalgonda district, as well as the headquarters of the Nalgonda mandal in the Nalgonda revenue division. It is located about from the state c ...

, followed by an MA in

Telugu literature Telugu literature includes poetry, short stories, novels, plays, and other works composed in Telugu. There is some indication that Telugu literature dates at least to the middle of the first millennium. The earliest extant works are from the ...

from

Kakatiya University Kakatiya University is a public university located in Hanumakonda district in the Indian state of Telangana. It was most recently accredited with an "A+" Grade by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council of India in the month of June ...

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 811,844 per 2011 Census of India, and spreading over an . Warangal serv ...

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). It started as a daily newspaper in 1981 with Vijayawada as the publishing centre. Cu ...

'', a

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

newspaper, in 1989. He later worked for the ''

New Indian Express ''The New Indian Express'' is an Indian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper published by the Chennai-based Express Publications. It was founded in 1932 as ''The Indian Express'', under the ownership of Chennai-based P. Varadarajulu Naid ...

'' 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 t ...

''. 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: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

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

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 () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

, and

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India **Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...

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. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

. 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 editorial cartoonists 1965 births Telugu writers Writers from Andhra Pradesh People from Suryapet Kakatiya University alumni {{cartoonist-stub