Akhtari Bai Faizabadi, also known as Begum Akhtar is today's Google Doodle. She was a well known Indian singer of Ghazal, Dadra, and Thumri genres of Hindustani classical music.
She received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for vocal music, and was awarded Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan (posthumously) by Govt. of India.She was given the title of Mallika-e-Ghazal (Queen of Ghazals)
Begum Akhtar was born in Bada Darwaza, Town Bhadarsa, Bharatkund, Faizabad District, Uttar Pradesh. 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).
Akhtar was barely seven when she was captivated by the music of Chandra Bai, an artist attached to a touring theatre group. However at her uncle's insistence she was sent to train under Ustad Imdad Khan, the great sarangi exponent from Patna, and later under Ata Mohammed Khan of Patiala. Later, she travelled to Calcutta with her mother and learnt music from classical stalwarts like Mohammad Khan, Abdul Waheed Khan of Lahore, and finally she became the disciple of Ustad Jhande Khan.
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. However, over the years, much of the garden of lost to the growing city, and the tomb fell into disrepair.
[9] The marble graves enclosed in a red brick enclosure, were restored in 2012, along with their pietra dura style marble inlay.[7][10] Attempts are on to convert her home built in 1936 in China bazaar, Lucknow into a museum.
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