Google Doodle Celebrating Kaifi Azmi's 101st Birthday

The doodle celebrates Indian poet, songwriter, and social change advocate Kaifi Azmi on his 101st birthday. With work ranging from passionate love poems and activist verses to Bollywood songs lyrics and screenplays, Azmi has become one of the most renowned poets of the 20th century in India, and his humanitarian efforts continue to impact people’s lives today.

Amzi was born Syed Athar Hussain Rizvi on January 14 in 1919 in the Azmargh district of Uttar Pradesh, India. At age 11, he composed his first poem, a ghazal-style piece. Inspired by Gandhi's 1942 Quit India freedom movement, he later left for Bombay (now Mumbai) to write for an Urdu newspaper. He then published his first collection of poems, Jhankar (1943), as well as became a member of the influential Progressive Writers’ Association that used writing to try to achieve socioeconomic reforms.

Azmi was prolific and won numerous awards for his contributions, including three Filmfare Awards for Garm Hawa (“Scorching Winds,” 1973), the prestigious Padma Shri Award for Literature and Education (1974), and one of India’s highest literary honors, the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship (2002).

In one of his early and most famous poems, “Aurat,” Amzi advocated for women’s equality, one of the causes he championed in his lifetime. He also founded the NGO Mijwan Welfare Society (MWS) to support various educational initiatives to improve the lives of rural women and families, and to this day, MWS continues its work in the spirit of its founder.