Pune girl wins Google Doodle contest

Taking a cue from today’s strong Indian women, Pune girl Gayatri Ketharaman, who bagged the top award in Google India’s Doodle-making competition on Tuesday, has designed a Doodle that will go live on the search engine's front page this Children’s Day. It's theme: Sky’s the limit for Indian women.

Doodles are the decorative changes made to the Google logo to celebrate holidays, anniversaries, lives of famous artists and scientists, as well as memorable events.

“My Doodle depicts the traits of Indian women, who are graceful and elegant, adept at balancing work and home. They are go-getters and also personify motherhood,” said the teen, a student of Bishop’s Co-education School in Pune.

The fifth edition of the contest, whose theme was “Celebrating Indian Women”, received 1.5 lakh entries from 1,500 schools across 100 cities.

Apart from the national winner, three students in different categories were also awarded. Madhuram Vatsal from Lucknow won the prize in the class I-III category, while Binita Biswajeeta from Odisha, with her doodle “Women are future, empower them better” won in the class IV-VI category.

Akash Shetty from Mangalore, with a Doodle titled “Indian women leading our country”, won in the class VII category.

The winners were chosen from 12 finalists from different parts of the country by a national-level jury comprising actor Kirron Kher and political cartoonist Ajit Ninan.

Among the finalists, eight-year-old Shreya Pandey’s and 11-year-old Dikshitha to Bangalore. Their joy knew no bounds when they were felicitated in the national capital for their achievement. “I felt happy making the Doodle. I like drawing, so I participated in the competition,” Shreya, a class 3 student of Kendriya Vidyalay, Hebbal, told Deccan Herald.

Dikshitha wants to become a computer engineer. “I enjoyed the competition. It was a new experience for me,” said the class 6 student of St Charles High School in Kammanahalli.

Kher said the theme this year was something so powerful and rich in concept that it really enabled youngsters across the country to showcase their talent and creativity irrespective of location.

Google India Managing Director Rajan Anandan said, “The competition is the perfect platform for Indian youth to showcase their talent on an international platform. It allows youngsters not only from the metro cities but tier 2, 3 and even tier 4 cities to participate, which is evident from the entries seen this year.”