Google is known to honor personalities and celebrate events through quirky and creative doodles. And keeping up with this tradition, Google Doodle is honoring the 153rd birth anniversary of Anandi Gopal Joshi, the first female doctor in India.
The doodle shows Joshi in a green sari standing before a settlement, holding a degree and wearing a stethoscope around her neck. While she may be the first female doctor in India, her doodle appears in several Google homepages such as Google UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Who was Anandi Gopal Joshi?
- Anandi Gopal Joshi, also known as Anandibai Gopalrao Joshi, was born March 31, 1865, in Kalyan, Maharashtra.
- Born Yamuna, she was married at the age of nine to Gopalrao Joshi, a widower known to be 20 years older than her.
- Her husband named her Anandi and encouraged her to continue her education.
- She gave birth to a son at the age of 14, but he lived just for 10 days due to lack of medical facilities.
- Her son's passing affected her deeply, and that is what inspired her to become a doctor.
- It was her husband, who wrote to the Royal Wilder, a well-known American missionary, speaking of Joshi's interest in medicine.
- She was then enrolled at the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, from where she attained a medical degree.
- She also attained a degree of Medicinae Doctor (MD) and was congratulated by Queen Victoria.
- She returned to India in late 1886 to a ceremonial welcome.
- Joshi was then appointed as the physician-in-charge of the female ward of the Albert Edward Hospital in the princely state of Kolhapur.
- However, Joshi contracted tuberculosis and died February 26, 1887, even before she could turn 22.
- Her ashes now lie in the family cemetery in Poughkeepsie, New York.
