Google celebrates 100th birthday of Padma awardee Mrinalini Sarabhaia

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Google doodle to celebrate 100th birthday anniversary of Mrinalini Sarabhai.
Google doodle to celebrate 100th birthday anniversary of Mrinalini Sarabhai.

New Delhi : Today is the 100th birthday anniversary of the legendary dancer and Padma Bhushan and Padma Shree recipient Mrinalini Sarabhai. To honour her, Google has dedicated a doodle in its homepage. The Google doodle depicts a colourful sketch of Mrinalini Sarabhai and her stage performance.

Padma awardee Mrinalini Sarabhaia was born on 11 May 1918, exactly 100 years ago in Kerala. She trained in Bharatnatyam, Kathakali and Mohiniyattom. She pursued education at Shantiniketan under Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Along with per dance, she also wrote many novels, poetry, plays, and stories for children

She is the founder of the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts in Ahmedabad in 1948, an institute that trains in dance, drama, music, and puppetry. During her lifetime, she's reportedly trained over 18,000 students in Bharatnatyam and Kathakali.

In 1942, she later married famous Indian physicist Dr Vikram Sarabhai, also known as the architect of Indian space programme. Her son Kartikeya and daughter Mallika followed their mother’s footsteps to become dancers and theatre artists.

“Darpana was established as a dance academy by Mrinalini and Vikram Sarabhai in 1949. For nearly two decades it taught classical dance. With Mrinalini as the lead dancer, and ChatunniPanicker as her partner, the Darpana dance company toured across the world,” said the official website of Darpanaacademy.

She was the first recipient of the Nishagandhi Puraskaram, an annual award of the Government of Kerala, presented to her on 2013.

On 21 January 2016, Mrinalini Sarabhai died at her age of 97.