Google on Wednesday celebrated literary critic and Urdu author Abdul Qavi Desnavi’s 87th birthday through its doodle. Born in Bihar’s Desna village in 1930, Desnavi played a powerful role in the evolution of Urdu literature in India. The writer died on July 7, 2011.
Over the span of five decades, Desnavi authored a vast number of Urdu texts, including fiction, biographies, poetry, and anthologies. His prominent works included ‘Sat Tahriren,’ ‘Motala-E-Khotoot Ghalib,’ ‘Talash-E-Azad,’ and his magnum opus, the biographical ‘Hayat-e-Abul Kalam Azad,’ which celebrated the life of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.
Desnavi was born into the family of Muslim scholar Syed Sulaiman Nadvi. He retired as the head of the Urdu department in Bhopal’s Saifia Post Graduate college in 1990. Many famous poets and academicians of today have been his disciples, including Javed Akhtar and Iqbal Masood.
Google doodle honoured the linguist and critic by designing its logo in the Urdu-styled script. The doodle also portrays Desnavi while at work.