Mahadevi Varma, renowned Hindi poet, freedom fighter, educationist and women's rights activist, received the prestigious Gyanpeeth Award for her invaluable contribution to literature on April 27, 1982. Google, on Friday, celebrated the poet's award by dedicating a doodle in her honour. Varma was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1956 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1988. She was the recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship in 1979. The doodle, drawn by guest artist Sonali Zohra, shows Mahadevi Varma seated on the left of the frame, busy writing against the backdrop of a sunset, under a tree in the countryside. The right side of the frame shows her writing in the Devnagiri script. Born on March 26, 1907, in Farukhabad into an orthodox family, Mahadevi Varma spent her childhood near Allahabad. Her father was a professor. It was her mother who encouraged her to write in Hindi and Sanskrit, even though both her parents wanted her to study further. She was also known as 'modern Meera'. She was married in 1916, when she was nine years old, but she continued to live at her parent's home, studying at the Crossthwaite Girls' School in Allahabad. Read this story in Bengali here.
