Google Doodle's for Carnatic vocalist MS Subbulaksmi's 97th birthday

On her 97th birthday, Google has doodled for the late Bharat Ratna recipient MS Subbulaksmi today. The Carnatic vocalist with a huge fan following to this date has been honoured by Google on its India page.

It may come as a slight disappointment to her fans, but the Google Doodle is not interactive and is missing her melodious voice. The light, pastel coloured doodle shows musical instruments in place of the alphabets. A well designed image of MS Subbulakshmi, fondly called MS by her fans, is placed instead of the alphabet “G” in the doodle. She’s shown sitting with a tanpura in her hand and her trademark red and black bindi on her forehead.

Celebrating the legendary Carnatic vocalist, MS Subbulakshmi’s 97th birthday

Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi or MS, was born in 1916 in Madurai to a musical family. Her mother played the veena and her grandmother was a violinist. MS started learning Carnatic music at a very young age and went on to perform at the prestigious Madras Music Academy when she was only 13.

The vocalist soon went on to become India’s cultural ambassador and performed at several international concerts throughout her lifetime. She also dabbled in the film industry and acted in a few Tamil movies. MS was the first Indian musician to receive the Ramon Magsaysay award, considered to be Asia’s Nobel Prize. She was also the first musician ever, back in India, to be awarded with the nation’s highest civilian honour – the Bharat Ratna.

The serene looking doodle is a great comeback for Google from the disastrous one it released to commemorate India’s independence day. The doodle, before being fixed, had been allegedly showing the wrong colours from the Indian flag.