For eight-year-old Shreya Pandey from Bangalore, joy knew no bounds as she finished among 12 finalists of the hugely popular Doodle4Google contest, along with another Bangalorean, Dikshitha, a class VI student.
The contest was eventually won by Gayatri Ketharaman of Pune. The winning doodle, titled “Sky’s the limit for Indian women,” will be featured on the Google (India) homepage on November 14, Children’s Day. The 12 finalists were felicitated by Google India in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Doodles are decorative alterations made to the Google logo to celebrate holidays, anniversaries and lives of famous artistes and scientists. This year’s theme was “Sky’s the limit for Indian women.”
“I felt happy making the doodle. I like drawing so I participated in the competition,” Shreya, a class III student of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Hebbal, told Deccan Herald.
For Dikshitha, an aspiring computer engineer, it was an entirely new experience. She is a student of St Charles High School in Kammanahalli. “We got only a day’s time to give entries from our school. Dikshitha’s design was finally shortlisted. Next time, she will definitely win,” said her principal, Sister Juiana.
Akash Shetty, a class X student of St Aloysius High School in Mangalore, grabbed the top spot in the third category, meant for students from classes VIII to X. It was the second title for Mangalore in the contest’s history.
Shetty was trained by artist John Chandran. He is also a recipient of the State government’s Kalashree award. Santhosh Lobo, a computer teacher at St Aloysius, praised the winner’s capability to capture subjects with clarity.
Madhuram Vatsal of Lucknow won the top prize in the category for classes I to III, while Binita Biswajeeta of Odisha, with her doodle “Women are future, empower them better,” won in the classes IV to VI category.
The 12 finalists were selected from 1.5 lakh entries received from 1,500 schools across 100 cities in the country. The winners were selected by a jury comprising actor Kirron Kher and political cartoonist Ajit Ninan.
