Meet Homai Vyarawalla, the woman who made Muhammad Ali Jinnah smile when she fell down

 It doesn't take a genius to figure out that people who feature on Google doodles are exceptional ones. Today's Google doodle features a woman who was India's first female photojournalist.

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

1. She immortalised 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

That is not all. Her frames also captured the funerals of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri. Vyarawalla was known for widely photographing India's transition from the British Raj to an independent country after its subsequent partition. She photographed Queen Elizabeth's and former United States president, Dwight Eisenhower's visits to India.

2. She used the pseudonym "Dalda 13"

No, it has nothing to do with The Last Supper and unlucky 13. In fact, the opposite was true for Homai Vyarawalla. This number was symbolic as she was born in 1913, when she was 13-years-old she met her husband and her first car's registration number was DLD 13.

3. She was introduced to photography by her husband Manekcshaw Vyarawala, a photographer at the Times of India

Hailing from Navsari in Gujarat, Vyarawalla moved to Bombay to pursue a diploma at St Xavier's College before moving on for further studies at the JJ School of Arts. During the turbulent time of second world war in 1942, Vyarawalla got a job at the British Information Services in New Delhi. She also started working with the Bombay-based 'The Illustrated Weekly of India' magazine where many of her black and white images were published that became iconic later.

4. Her favourite subject was the first Prime Minister of India, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru

She had clicked the iconic picture of Nehru Smoking a cigarette. But this talented woman quit photography a year after her husband's death in 1973, and lived alone in Vadodara, Gujarat.

5. She wore sari clad and rode a bike to her assignments

Imagine a woman doing it when there were no other women photojournalists around. She was a true badass with equipment on shoulders was something new in the male driven sector those days.

Narrating an incident to The Hindu, Homai's friend Sabeen Gadihoke said that when Homai was stranded in Sikkim, she hitched a ride back on an army truck after taking images of a young Dalai Lama crossing the border in 1959.