Shankardas Kesarilal (30 August 1923 – 14 December 1966), popularly known by his pen name Shailendra, was a popular Indian Hindi lyricist. Noted for his association with the filmmaker Raj Kapoor and the composers Shankar-Jaikishan, he wrote lyrics for several successful Hindi film songs in the 1950s and the 1960s.Poetry was his first love but family situation forced him to take up a job of a railway mechanic. He used to work in the railway workshop at Parel.