Google honours Pakistan’s pioneering puppeteer Farooq Qaiser aka Uncle Sargam on his birthday

Google on Tuesday changed its doodle to pay tribute to Pakistan's pioneering puppeteer Farooq Qasier, famously known as "Uncle Sargam", to mark what would have been his 78th birthday on October 31.

The legendary artist, a graduate and gold medalist of Lahore's National College of Arts, is known for creating iconic characters like "Uncle Sargam" and "Massi Museebtay" which became household names throughout the 80s and the 90s.

Qasier, who was the pioneer of puppet shows in Pakistan, started his career with the children's puppet show Akkar Bakkar.

Meanwhile, Kaliyan, Sargam Sargam and Daak Time, Sargam Time, Siyasi Kaliyan and Sargam are some of his other popular works.

However, it was "Uncle Sargam" and "Massi Museebtey" characters that rose to unprecedented fame and are in fact part of everyone's childhood from those years.

The industry mogul, during an interview with Geo News, said that he was in fact "accidentally" brought into the television industry after Salima Hashmi, daughter of Faiz Ahmed Faiz and his teacher at NCA, offered him to work in the television industry, he told Geo News in a 2017 interview.

Responding to a question regarding the downfall of the television industry, Qaiser said that the country needed music, fine arts and acting academies to prepare the next generation to take the industry into the future.

Another aspect that the veteran artist believed was missing today, was that of the role and stature of teachers who were idolised back then.

After an illustrious career spanning around five decades, the esteemed artist passed away due to cardiac arrest on May 14, 2021.