Renowned Cartoonist Sudhir Dar passes away

Award-winning Indian cartoonist Sudhir Dar died on Tuesday morning after suffering a cardiac arrest, his family said. He was 87.

Dar, whose works appeared in various newspapers in a career spread over 58 years, was considered the second generation editorial cartoonists who were active from the 1960s to 2000. These included R.K. Laxman, O.V. Vijayan, Rajinder Puri, and Abu Abraham.

Dar, a Kashmiri, was born in Allahabad in 1932 and he earned a Master's in Geography from the University of Allahabad.

Dar began his cartoonist's career with The Statesman in 1961 and did pocket cartoon on Page one -- 'Out of My Mind'.

He took up a job with the Hindustan Times in 1967 and remained with the newspaper for over two decades.

Later, he joined 'The Pioneer' under the stewardship of Vinod Mehta. In 2000, he retired to work as a freelancer. He had since shifted to Gurugram, adjoining national capital Delhi.

His cartoons also appeared in New York Times, The Independent, Washington Post, The Pioneer, Delhi Times, and Mad magazine, which dubbed him a 'Tasty Indian Nut'.

His popularity can be gauged from the fact that the Queen of England, British actor Richard Attenborough, Yehudi Menuhin and other celebrities around the world own his originals.

Though Dar was a political cartoonist, he avoided satirising particular politicians and events. On the other hand, he took dig at general subjects like bureaucracy and corruption.

Dar penned 'Out of My mind', 'This is it!', 'Out of my mind again!', 'The Best of This is it !', The Best of Sudhir Dar' from 1966 onwards.

'Sudhir Dar classics', 'The Mad, Mad World of elections', and 'The Mad, Mad World of Cricket' are his notable books.

As an illustrator, he worked on 'Kashmiri Cooking' , a book by his father, Krishna Prasad Dar. 'Journey Through the Universe' by Jayant Narlikar had cartoons drawn by Dar.

In a tweet on November 16, Dhar admonished cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir, a Member of Parliament, for skipping an official meet on pollution.

“Pollution is a ' gambhir' issue n dis is no time 2 b away 4m Delhi, evading a Parliamentary meeting n eating jalebis in Indore ..ur now d MP 4m East Delhi , Gautam ..r capital is a 'GAS CHAMBER '.. 9 WICKETS DOWN .. GET GOING , DIS CLD B UR FINEST HOUR !!!,” he tweeted.

His last tweet came a day later, on November 17 in which he recalled the day when Sharmila Tagore and husband Tiger Pataudi opened one of Dhar's exhibition in New Delhi.