Mumbai girl wins doodle contest, Google uses it on Children’s Day

MUMBAI: This Children’s Day, the Google doodle for India was created by a Class VIII student from Mumbai. Pingla More of Dadar’s J B Vachha High School won the Doodle 4 Google contest from among 75,000 children across the country. Also making it to the Top 20 from the city was Dhwanit Nagar, a Class X student from Swami Vivekanand International School, Kandivli.

Earlier this year, Google invited doodles from Indian students based on what inspires them, giving them a chance to get on to the Google homepage in the country.More’s doodle was on the homepage on Wednesday. Her doodle titled ‘Galaxy, Space Exploration’ was declared the winner after voting from the public and judging by a panel. “I am extremely inspired by space exploration as there is still so much more to know about our universe. From planets to stars to galaxies and beyond, we have to learn a lot about it yet. It also doesn’t have any boundaries. To convey my idea, I drew trying to see the expanse of the space through a telescope; I created galaxies, planets and spacecraft to represent the vastness of things in space,” said More.
As the national winner, she will win a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh and a Rs 2 lakh technology package for her school. “I love art and want to pursue something in the field. One night, I spent three hours to pour my heart out into the doodle. I was surprised to have won the competition,” said the Dadar resident.
More, along with 19 other shortlisted contests, visited Google India’s office in Gurgaon. Among the shortlisted contestants was Nagar. His doodle was based on the animal kingdom. “Animals are my source of inspiration and we, as humans, also draw a lot from them. A lot of technological innovations such as airplanes are modelled on birds and submarines on the aquatic animals. But the big difference between us is that they live in their habitat without any discrimination and maintain the ecological balance,” he said. His art will be featured on Doodle 4 Google gallery.