This caricature of Cartoonist Yesudasan was presented to him by Sujith, Kerala Kaumudi daily cartoonist on June 12, 2008 - 70th birthday of Yesudasan.

'Educational sector in shambles in Kerala'

PTI Kochi, June 12, 2008: Senior Congress leader, K Karunakaran, on Thursday alleged that the educational sector is in total shambles in Kerala, causing anxiety to students about their future. Speaking after launching a website on the life and cartoon drawings of renowned cartoonist Yesudasan, www.yesudasan.info at a function here, Karnukaran asked "is there a government in Kerala?."

"When we glance at daily newspapers, we can only see the verbal fight that is going on between the ministers. They have no time to solve the issues of common people," he said. "Chief Minister is a good person, but he behaves as if he has not seen many things that are happening," Karunakaran said, adding there is not enough foodgrains for the people here, but the ministers have no time to look into that.

'The present situation in the state is ideally suited for cartoonist', Karunakaran said in a lighter vein. Without naming any political party, Karunakaran said 'two political parties are betraying each other and in effect they are betraying the state of Kerala', he said. Dr K S Radhakrishnan, Vice-Chancellor, Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady, presided.

Cartoonist Yesudasan, who is working in the Malayalam daily 'Malayala Manorama' replied to the felicitation.

Yesudasan at Kayankulam to view wax statue of Shankar

Acknowledgement

I am thankfull to the following persons who have helped in crafting the website
By contributing some antique pieces..

Shri Hashim Rajan
Kaumudi Publications
Thiruvananthapuram

Shri Sudhirnath
Secretry
Kerala Cartoon Academy

Shri Ravi
Cartoonist
Bharanikavu
Mavelikara

Shri Mohan
Cartoonist
Vallikunnam

Shri Sujith
Cartoonist
Kerala Kaumudi
Thiruvananthapuram

yesudasan

Kambissery Yugam

I have two gurus in the field of cartooning-one is a person who does not have any artistic skills-Kambisseri Karunakaran and the other is Cartoonist Shanker.It was in 1961 that I joined Janayugam as a staff cartoonist-I have no idea of the exact date but I have a notion that it was during the onam season.The chief editor was N. Gopinathan Nair and Kambisseri was in charge of the Janayugam weekly.I shared the room of Kambissery and thus our relation grew.We used to take our evening walks together-begin from kadappakada,take a scroll around Aashramam ground and then via Chinnakada back to Janayugam Office.It was during this time that new ideas, accusations and gossips
Were discussed between us.Sometimes Adv Vaikkathethu(also a writer)used to join us.
Among the editorial staff of Janayugam,it was Kambissery who has influenced me and polished me the most.He used to take me with him on his tours to Kozhikode,Trivandrum and KPAC Kayankulam and I kept my eyes glued on the Steering throughout the journey as Kambissery himself used to be on the wheels!This is an anecdote of these Interesting journeys in Trivandrum-Kollam route published in the Kambisseri Memorial Magazine by Hashim Rajan,Koumudi,Trivandrum.

Yesudasan

Felicitations on the launch of website

Krishnan on Yesudasan

An article by cartoonist PV Krishnan on cartoonist Yesudasan on the occasion of Yesudasan's 70th birthday on June 12, 2008.

www.yesudasan.info Launched

www.yesudasan.info, a website on the Life and Work of Cartoonist Yesudasan is being inaugurated by the former Chief Minister of Kerala Honorable Shri K Karunakaran on June 12, 2008 - 70th birthday of Yesudasan. The site prepared by Design & People was inaugurated at Bharat Hotel, Ernakulam. Hundreds of people from all walks of life participated in the event.

About Yesudasan: Yesudasan was born on June 12, 1938 at Mavelikkara, Kerala in South India. His first cartoon appeared in 1955 in a magazine called 'Asoka' published from Kottayam. But it was only in 1960, he made an entry into the world of political cartooning, that too through 'Janayugam', the mouth-piece of the Communist Party in Kerala. In Janayugam he started a regular cartoon column with the character 'Kittumman', which became the first pocket cartoon in Malayalam. In 1963, he left for Delhi to join the Shankar's Weekly and became a disciple of cartoonist Shankar, the legend of Indian cartooning. On returning to his native place, he became the editor of 'Balayugam' and later started 'Asadhu', 'Cut-Cut', 'Tuk-Tuk' and 'Sadhu', popular satirical magazines on politics and cinema, in similar lines with Shankar's Weekly. In 1985, he joined the Malayala Manorama group of publications as a staff cartoonist.

An excellent political satirist, Yesudasan has written three books - 'Aniyara', 'Pradhama Dhrusti' and 'Post Mortem'. And his latest book 'Varayile Nayanar', a collection of cartoons on the late Chief Minister of Kerala, Shri EK Nayanar was released by Dr Manmohan Singh, the Honourable Prime Minister of India. Yesudasan has also made a reputation as a script-writer for Malayalam films. He is the founder chairman of Kerala Cartoon Academy and twice the chairman of Kerala Lalithakala Akademi. An excellent political satirist, Yesudasan may be one of the few cartoonists in the country who handles the maximum number of columns a day - in both Malayalam and English.