Sheila Khambadkone was born on February 11, 1932 in a Chitrapur Saraswat (Bhānap) family in Mangalore (Konkani: कॊडियाल). She was the daughter of Ramrao Katre (Konkani: रामराव कत्रॆ). Khambadkone lost her mother when she was three months old.
Her official name was Vijayalakshmi Keshav Khambadkone (Konkani: विजयालक्ष्मि केशव कंबदकोणॆ)
Her aunt was a major influence on her, drawing her towards literature. Since her schooldays, Khambadkone wrote songs, poems and small skits. These were sung and read and enacted respectively with a small group of friends and neighbours.
She used to write for the college magazine too.
She has also read some of her poems on the Konkani section at the Mumbai station of All India Radio. Khambadkone wrote two noteworthy dramas, a one-act play enacted at Santacruz Saraswat Colony, Mumbai in the Diwali of 1983 and a two-act play hās ājjē hās (Konkani: हास आज्जे हास) enacted in 1984 at the koṅkaṇi nāṭya mahōtsava.
She also read her poems at the First World Konkani Convention (Konkani: पयलॆं विश्व कोंकणी संमेळन). In 2010, she compiled a book of her writings entitled khiso bhōṟnu hāso (Konkani: खिसॊ भोऱ्नु हासॊ)
In March 2008 Khambadkone received the lēkhana puraskār from the sārasvat mahilā samāj, Mumbai.
Khambadkones genre was humour.
She tried to bring out the nuances of the Konkani language. Being a speaker of the Bhanap dialect of Konkani, she was fascinated by the dialect of the Mangalorean Catholics in its usage of native Konkani words as against Tatsama words.
