Recent Google Doodles Dedicated to Notable Indians

“The king of playback singing” in India, Mohammed Rafi has contributed approximately 5000 songs on several genres such as romantic, classical, rock and roll, patriotic, ballads, qawwalis and bhajans. Also a Padma Shri awardee and the winner of 6 Filmfare Awards and one National Film Award, the legendary singer has sung more than 26,000 songs in languages apart from Hindi like Assamese, Konkani, Sindhi, Gujarati, Bhojpuri, Telugu, Urdu, Odia, Bengali, Marathi, Arabic, English, Dutch and many more.

Earning the nickname “Fearless Nadia” for her stupendous performance in Indian cinema as the original Bollywood stuntwoman, Google celebrated her 110th birthday with this beautiful doodle. Born Mary Ann Evans in Perth, Australia, in 1908, she started her journey by first joining a touring dance troupe in Bombay followed by the Zarco Circus. Her first movie in a lead role, ‘Hunterwali’ got her fantastic audience for the boldness she portrayed and went on to make stunts where she tamed lions, ran on speeding trains and more.

The Indian-American biochemist and Nobel Prize winner in Medicine, Har Gobind Khorana’s zeal to study and understand science started from a young age in Raipur, India. He is known to have conducted research at the universities of Switzerland, England and Canada and was awarded the Nobel Prize at the University of Wisconsin in 1968.

Capturing some of the prominent faces of the 20th century, Homai Vyarawalla made it to become the first female photojournalist of India whose work and enthusiasm made her hit the headlines. Among her many projects, the journalist earned much recognition during the nation’s independence movement where she took candid shots of figures such as Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Dalai Lama, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Martin Luther King, Jr, and more. This “First Lady of the Lens” of India was also honoured with the Padma Vibhushan in 2010.

With a zeal to understand the geographical locations and becoming the first man to survey Tibet, Nain Singh Rawat walked to Kathmandu, Tawang and Lhasa starting from his hometown in Kumaon, Uttarakhand disguised as a Tibetan monk. His courageous steps of 2000 steps per mile (which he measured with the help of rosary beads) and idea to figure out the directions with the use of a compass hidden in his prayer wheel, the Himalayan explorer walked and walked to discover several sites including the gold mines of Thok Jalung.

The Indian Urdu language writer, bibliographer, critic and linguist who is extensively known for his work for distinguished people like Mirza Ghalib, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Allama Muhammad Iqbal among several others. Sat Tahriren, Talash-E-Azad, Hayat-e-Abul Kalam Azad and Motala-E-Khotoot Ghalib are the names of his notable works. Also having served at Bhopal’s Saifia College as the head of the Urdu Department, the author has also guided Iqbal Masood and Javed Akhtar.

Earning the title of “Nritya Samragini”, meaning the “Empress of Dance” from Rabindranath Tagore, Sitara Devi was a legendary Kathak dancer who left her audience mesmerised with her awe-striking performances and effortless grace when on stage. Also having performed on international stages such as the Carnegie Hall in New York and the Royal Albert Hall in London, the eminent dancer is also known to have taught several Bollywood celebrities ranging from Madhubala to Kajol.

Having studied at the London School of Economics where she received the opportunity to discover much about social equality, Anasuya Sarabhai is a popular name among the women population of Gujarat for altering India’s labour system. The feminist and activist helped increase the wages of Ahmedabad’s weavers by becoming their vocal support and was also supported by Mahatma Gandhi with whose assistance she had set the oldest labour union of the state.