Google Doodle For Singer Begum Akhtar On Her 103rd Birth Anniversary

Google is paying tribute to Akhtaribai Faizabadi, also known as Begum Akhtar was born on October 7, 1914 in Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. She was a well known Indian singer of Ghazal, Dadra, and Thumri genres of Hindustani classical music. She was also given the title of Mallika-e-Ghazal and was also awarded with Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan (posthumously) by Government of India.

Her father, Asghar Hussain, a young lawyer who fell in love with her mother Mushtari and made her his second wife, subsequently disowned her and his twin daughters Zohra and Bibbi (Akhtar). Her first public performance was at the age of fifteen. The famous poet Sarojini Naidu appreciated her singing during a concert which was organised in the aid of victims of the 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake. In 1945, Akhtaribai married a Lucknow-based barrister, Ishtiaq Ahmed Abbasi, and became known as Begum Akhtar.

She died on 30 October 1974 in the arms of Nilam Gamadia, her friend, who invited her to Ahmedabad, which has become her final performance. Her tomb was built in a mango orchard within her home, ‘Pasanda Bagh’ in Thakurganj area, of Lucknow. She was buried alongside her mother, Mushtari Sahiba.

Begum Akhtar