Homai Vyarawalla

Who is Homai Vyarawalla featured in today's Google Doodle?

Google on Saturday paid tributes to Homai Vyarawalla, India's first woman photojournalist, with a doodle.

Vyarawalla was known for extensive photographing of India's transition from the British Raj to an independent country.

Also read: India's first woman photojournalist Homai Vyarawalla does not make a fuss about being a woman in a male bastion

Hailing from Navsari in Gujarat, Vyarawalla moved to Bombay to pursue a diploma at St Xavier's College before moving on to further studies at the JJ School of Arts. She was introduced to photography by her husband Manekshaw Vyarawala, a photographer at Times of India.

Vyarawala went on to work with the British Information Services and had a familiar sight in Delhi, sari-clad, traveling from one end of the city to the other on a cycle. She believes that the key to a good photograph is timing, composition, and angle. "There are 15 people taking a photograph at the same time; everyone has their own style. But the only one who gets the right moment and the right angle," she said.

Also read: Farewell Homai Vyarawalla

His contributions as a photo-journalist include immortalizing the moment when the first flag was hoisted at the Red Fort on August 15, 1947, the departure of the last Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten from the country, and the funerals of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Lal Bahadur Shastri Vyarawala also photographed Queen Elizabeth's and former United States president, Dwight Eisenhower's visits to India.

She was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award in India in 2011. She passed away at the age of 98 in 2012 in Vadodara, Gujarat.