Vijayawada: Columnist Falakshudu no more

Vijayawada: Noted columnist Jonnalagadda Bhupatiraju who ran a column with the penname Falakshudu with the column name Falakshuni Diary for several decades in the erstwhile vernacular newspaper Andhra Patrika breathed his last at Hyderabad on Monday, according to his daughter Aparna.

He was 82. He is survived by wife and two daughters. A litterateur, Bhupatiraju was a close friend of the chairman of Andhra Patrika Sivalenka Sambhu Prasad who asked him to write columns. He was also a close friend of Bapu-Ramana.

He worked for Chennai-based MGM transport company for several decades and retired as general manager.

Though he was not a journalist by profession, out of passion he used to write the column and every week he used to regale the readers with his witty presentation of the column.

The readers believed that his original name was Falakshudu. His two younger brothers were journalists—Jonnalagadda Radhakrishna and Jonbnalagadda Kishore—but they died early.