On the occasion of Children’s Day in India, Mumbai school student, Pingla Rahul More, got the ultimate gift as her doodle on ‘Space Exploration’ was featured on Google India’s homepage. Her artwork emerged as the chosen doodle, beating over 75,000 such entries from India, in the Doodle 4 Google Contest 2018.

Doodle 4 Google 2018

The Yearly competition sees students from standards 1 to 10 invited by the global search engine to showcase their creativity by submitting their own version of the Google Doodle. The Google Doodle has become a ubiquitous part of the brand’s identity – altering its instantly recognizable logo with visual elements to commemorate events, holidays, achievements and people.

The theme for the 2018 contest was ‘What Inspires Me?’, with school students participating in 5 distinct age groups – classes 1 & 2, classes 3 & 4, classes 5 & 6, classes 7 & 8, and classes 9 & 10. Pingla, a student of J B Vachha High School in Mumbai, was determined as the age group finalist for classes 7 & 8, and ultimately beat the competition to be placed as the national winner.

An expert panel of judges comprising the famous artist Arun Iyer, YouTube Kids Creator Harun Robert, India’s leading YouTube creator Sejal Kumar, and the Google doodles team lead by Ryan Germick, selected the final winners on the parameters of artistic merit, creativity, and theme communication, before picking Pingla’s Doodle on ‘Galaxy & Space Exploration’ for the top prize.

National Winner from India

The doodle features a young girl camping in a hillock and gazing at the night sky with a telescope. Speaking to the media about the inspiration for her creation, Ms. More said, “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. It is inspiring to learn how small we are, and how small our problems are, in the grand scheme of things”.

Apart from getting her doodle displayed on Google India’s homepage, she is also set to receive a college scholarship worth INR 5 lakh, as well as a technology package worth INR 2 lakh for her school.

Other Age Group Winners

Classes 1 & 2 – Shaikh Mohd Rufael Rizwan

Inspiration – 3 Wise Monkeys

Classes 3 & 4 – Aarohi Dixit

Inspiration – Farmers

Classes 5 & 6 – Daniya Kulsum

Inspiration – My Desk

Classes 9 & 10 – Dhwanit P Nagar

Inspiration – Animals