Category: Obituaries

Noted artist and sculptor Sher Singh Kukkal passes away at 86

Noted artist and sculptor Sher Singh Kukkal passed away in Delhi after brief illness. He was 86. He was awarded Senior Fellowship in Visual Art Photography by Union Ministry Of Culture during 2008-09.

A versatile artist with a vast experience in fine arts, Mr. Kukkal hailed from Buffa district, now in Pakistan. He worked as a freelance artist, doing drawing, painting, sculpture, printing and photography. He painted with graphite pencils, pen and ink.

He won various national and international awards for photography and painting, including the Gold Medal in Painting from Queens College, Lucknow and the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation Award.

Veteran Congress leader Shamsher Surjewala passes away

Veteran Congress leader Shamsher Singh Surjewala passed away on Monday following prolonged illness. He was 87. Surjewala, father of party leader Randeep Surjewala, breathed his last at the AIIMS hospital in Delhi.

Shamsher Surjewala remained a five-time MLA and one-time Rajya Sabha MP. He was also the former president of the Haryana Congress and a former minister. He was a president of the Haryana Krishak Samaj and fought for the rights of farmers.

Bapu Nadkarni, former India all-rounder passes away

Former India legendary all-rounder, Bapu Nadkarni died on Friday following an old-age related illness at age 86. He played 41 Test matches for India in which he scored 1414 runs and grabbed 88 wickets with 6/43 as his best bowling figures. He was best known for his parsimonious left-arm spin bowling and ability to get maiden overs at will, including 21 consecutive ones against England in a Test match in Madras (Chennai).

Former MP Gopinath Gajapati Narayan Deo dies at 76

The titular head of Odisha’s Gajapati dynasty and former parliamentarian, Gopinath Gajapati Narayan Deo passes away at age 76, following prolonged illness. Gopinath Gajapati was undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Bhubaneswar due to heart-related. He was under medication for over three years.

Born in 1943, Deo had represented the Berhampur parliamentary constituency for two terms as a Congress member in 1989 and 1991. He switched over to the BJP in 1998 and joined the ruling BJD a decade later, in 2009.

Screenwriter Buck Henry passes away

Veteran screenwriter Buck Henry, credited for penning Hollywood classics such as The Graduate and Heaven Can Wait, passes away at the age of 89. According to Deadline, Henry died after suffering a heart attack at Cedars-Sinai Health Center in Los Angeles. Born Henry Zuckerman in 1930 in New York City, the writer was the son of silent film star Ruth Taylor. He was known as Buck Hendry

Folk singer and sarangi maestro Sharif Idu passes away

Legendary balladeer and sarangi maestro from Punjab, Sharif Idu passes away at age 80. He was conferred with the country’s highest honour for performing arts — the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2006 in dhadi folk music category — by then President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.