New Delhi: Some Google users in India might not have immediately established the connection between a tabla, sitar, shehnai and other Indian musical instruments with Children's Day.
The doodle that Google India put on its home page to celebrate Children's Day, the birthday of the first Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, was created by Varsha Gupta, a Class III student from Ryan International School, Greater Noida. Varsha was chosen as the winner of this year's Doodle 4 Google competition organised by Google.
Google had announced that it would put the winning Doodle 4 Google entry on the Google India homepage on Children's Day - 14th November 2011.
Explaining her doodle, Varsha writes, "India is a land of different cultures. In India, music plays a very important role. India has given many musical instruments to the world. Goddess Saraswati plays Veena, God Shiv plays Damaru. According to our mythological stories musical instruments used to be played on all the occasions. Even during war musical instruments were played. Lord Krishna's flute is known in the whole world for its magical music. In modern days Mr. Zakir Hussain is world famous as Tabla Mastro and Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma is known as a great Santoor player all over the world".
Google India had presented Varsha with the winning certificate along with a technology starter package including a laptop, a year's Internet connection and a Rs 2,00,000 technology grant for her school.
The competition was open to all students from Class I to Class X. This year participants were challenged to imagine their own version of the Google logo based on the theme 'India's gift to the world'.
Submitted doodles were shortlisted by partner art schools from across India and 6000 doodles entered the quarter-final round. Faculty from the Sir JJ School of Arts then shortlisted the 600 doodles that made it to the semifinal round. A panel of judges that included adman Prasoon Joshi, actress Nandita Das and artist Ganga Kadakia picked the 45 finalists. Jennifer Hom, from Google's doodle team, chose the winning doodle.
In addition to the the national winner, three group winners were also chosen through an online voting where people voted for their favourite doodle from the finalists.
Shibajyoti Choudhury (Group I) from Jamshedpur won the group prize for his doodle 'Developing excellent India and World'; Abhinav R (Group II) from Coimbatore won the prize for his doodle titled 'India's contribution to the world - Tradition'. And Nishi Bordia (Group III) from Indore won the prize for her doodle titled 'India's gift to the world - India itself'.
Google received over 1,55,000 entries from across India for its third Doodle4Google competition in the country.
Google doodles have gained immense popularity over the past few years and the Google team has put out commemorative doodles on events ranging from news events, civic milestones, birthdays, death anniversaries and important dates in history.
Google estimates it has created more than 900 doodles since 1998, with 270 of them running in 2010 and more than 200 in 2011.
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Jennifer Hom with Varsha Gupta
The winning doodles
Indian Musical Instruments
Varsha Gupta (National winner), Ryan International School, Greater Noida
Developing Excellent India and World
Shibajyoti Choudhury (Group I), Little Flower School, Jamshedpur
India’s contribution to the world – Tradition
Abhinav R (Group II), Stanes AI Higher Secondary School, Coimbatore
India’s Gift to the world – India itself
Nishi Bordia (Group III), The Emrald Heights International School, Indore
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