GooG DooD: Abdul Qavi Desnavi’s 87th Birthday

Thursday, November 30, 2017

Abdul Qavi Desnavi’s 87th Birthday

On this day in the year 1930, Urdu author and literary critic Abdul Qavi Desnavi was born in the village of Desna in Bihar. In the course of a literary career that spanned five decades, he authored a vast body of Urdu works covering fiction, biographies, poetry, and anthologies. His most famous works include ‘Sat Tahriren,’ ‘Motala-E-Khotoot Ghalib,’ ‘Talash-E-Azad,’ and his magnum opus, the biographical ‘Hayat-e-Abul Kalam Azad,’ celebrating the life of freedom fighter Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.

As the head of the Urdu Department at Bhopal’s Saifia College and a member of several regional and national literary bodies, he exerted a powerful influence on the evolution of Urdu literature and academic thought in India. At a personal level, he mentored some of India’s finest Urdu poets and writers such as Javed Akhtar and Iqbal Masood.

Today’s Doodle depicts Abdul Qavi Desnavi at his work, the logo stylized in Urdu-style script. Guest artist Prabha Mallya tried a few concepts before landing on the final design.