GOOGLE DOODLE REMEMBERS HINDI POET MAHADEVI VARMA

New Delhi, April 27: Eminent Hindi poetessayist Mahadevi Varma was honoured by Google with a colourful doodle marking the day she received the prestigious Jnanpith Award in 1982 for her contributions to Indian literature.

Painted against a rural backdrop, the doodle features an image of the bespectacled poet in her familiar white attire, penning one of her verses.

Born in 1907 near Allahabad, Varma grew up learning to write in Sanskrit and Hindi, thanks to her encouraging parents.

She is best known as a transformative poet, and an advocate for women’s rights in India.

While pursuing a masters degree in Sanskrit, Varma penned her first verses in secret — only to be discovered by her roommate and friend, Subhadra Kumari Chauhan.

“As modern Hindi became more accepted in literary circles, Varma and Subhadra grew together as writers, reading aloud and publishing their work in the language,” the Google doodle says. Today, Varma is considered one of the foundational poets of the Chhayavad movement in Hindi literature. Technology is moving “much faster” than the law, making it necessary to understand why cybercrime happens and who are the people behind it, says a global expert, warning that everyone is at risk of becoming a target.

According to Dr Vasileios Karagiannopoulos, Senior Lecturer of Law and Cybercrime at the University of Portsmouth, it has become important for people to know how to protect themselves from cybercrime, particularly in light of the recent Cambridge Analytica controversy.

His comment comes amid growing concern about online privacy in India, after Facebook recently admitted that data of over 5.6 lakh Indian users was harvested by an app that shared its records with UK- based analytics and consulting company Cambridge Analytica.

“We have developed quite a few laws, but technology has a way of bypassing law. So the pattern has been to constantly to bring new laws to regulate technology, instead of regulating behaviour,” Karagiannopoulos told PTI. “This is what makes it necessary for students to understand why cybercrime happens, and who are the people behind cybercrime,” he said.

Hoping to equip the new generation with the skills to fight the global rise of cybercrime, Mr Karagiannopoulos has