7-Year Old Varsha Gupta Wins Google's Doodle Contest
Varsha Gupta, a third standard student of Ryan International
School in Greater Noida, stole the show as she won the popular Doodle4Google India
contest. Around 1,55,000 contestants were raced past by Varsha's Google
logo which illustrated Indian classical music instruments, drawn in a style to portray
each letter of "Google".
"India is a land of different cultures. In India, music plays a very important role.
India has given many musical instruments to the world..." Varsha wrote describing
her Doodle. JJ School of Art in Mumbai screened all the drawings and later put them
up for online voting. Professional artists who draw doodles for Google were entitled
to judge the logos drawn by children. "I helped judge the drawings with a few of
my colleagues and frankly, we were all a little scared. These kids are so good,
we might all lose our jobs sometime soon." said Jennifer Hom, Google Doodler. Out
of the 1,55,000 entries, as many as 6,000 doodles were shortlisted for the quarter-finals,
and 600 for the semis. A panel of judges then picked the 45 finalists.
Varsha's victory moved her father to tears and he said, "This is the best day of
my life. I am so happy." The logo drawn by Varsha will be used by Google on 14th
November and her work will be showcased in front of hundred million online users.
On winning an expensive laptop as a prize, Varsha says "When my father is in office,
I will give the laptop to my mother. When he comes back, I will give it to him."
Rajan Anandan, Managing Director and VP for Google India, handed Varsha with the
winning certificate at an event in Delhi and along with a laptop, a year's Internet
connection and 2 Lakh technology grant for her school.
Anandan said, "I am delighted to see the enthusiasm that the youngsters have put
in to showcase their creativity. We hope this gets bigger each year." Mangalore's
Shubham Vernekar was also a national finalist in the contest. Shubham has also won
Daijiworld Weekly Drawing Contest. Apart from him two other Mangaloreans, Vaibhav
Shenoy and Varun Holla were also in the race. Although Mangalore boys are extremely
artistic, it was the voting system that prevented them from winning the contest.
They missed the opportunity due to lack of better online publicity and as they secured
fewer votes, they lost their chance in the contest.
Courtesy: SiliconIndia
