Who is Abdul Qavi Desnavi?

NEW DELHI: Search engine giant Google on Wednesday paid tribute to Urdu writer, critic and linguist Abdul Qavi Desnavi on his 87th birth anniversary with a special doodle. Desnavi, who was born in Desna village in Nalanda district of Bihar, passed away on July 7, 2011 in Bhopal where he spent his life. Designed by guest artist Prabha Mallya, the Google home page shows the bespectacled scholar in a black bandhgala at work against a stylised Google written in the manner of the Urdu script. He exerted powerful influence on the evolution of Urdu literature and academic thought in India, Google's doodle page said. 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, it said. His magnum opus was the biographical "Hayat-e-Abul Kalam Azad", celebrating the life of India's first education minister and freedom fighter Maulana Sayyid Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin Ahmed Azad, commonly remembered as Maulana Azad. His other major works include "Ajnabi Shaher", "Allama Iqbal Bhopal Mein", "Bachchon Ka Iqbal", "Bhopal Aur Ghalib", "Ek Shahar Panch Mashahirs", "Talash-e-Azad" and "Urdu Shairi Ki Gyarah Aawazein". Desnavi served as professor and head of the Urdu Department at Bhopal's Saifia College and held many honorary positions even after his retirement in 1990. Many scholars, poets and teachers, including lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar, were his students.