Doodle winner hopes for waves of Aman ki Asha At 14, Akshay Kumar, national winner of Doodle4Google competition, has envisioned what our hard-nosed politicians never tire talking about, but do not practice. He envisions friendship between Hindus and Muslims in India and Pakistan.

Though Akshay had many designs in mind when his art teacher John Chandran told him about the competition, the class IX student of St Aloysius High School, Mangalore, zeroed in on the doodle that finally won him the coveted prize at Mumbai on Saturday.

Akshay got to check his doodle only at 5pm on Sunday, almost 24 hours after he was announced the national winner. The lad landed from Mumbai by flight in the afternoon and was busy receiving accolades from all, delaying his first dekko of the prize-winning doodle on Google's homepage!
In his own words, Akshay said G stands for education, peace between India and Pakistan and Hindus and Muslims in the country; the OO stands for Earth and the rainbow path to the Moon showing the technological advances; G for the highways which are clean and with a green periphery, L for growth India will achieve constructing futuristic cities and E for the Internet.

Akshay covered more than what the theme had envisioned in a simple doodle, which not only won him points from judges, but also valuable web votes to make him a winner among the 1.08-lakh entrants.

The national winner's doodle appeared on the Google India homepage on Sunday and the doodler won a technology grant of Rs 2 lakh for his school, apart from lot of goodies.

His parents Mamatha and Rajesh are ecstatic. "He has taste for arts. We encouraged him and when he was in class VII, he joined BGM Fine Arts School," Rajesh added. "He wants to join the armed forces as of now, but it is his decision and we will stand by him," says Mamtha.

His neighbour R. D. Shastri, a chartered accountant says Akshay's septuagenarian grandmother Harinakshi eggs him on to participate in each and every painting competition and even accompanies him to such events. "She's a great encouragement," he adds.

Ask him what goodies he won from Google and he says: "I still have not unpacked it." But he knows that he has got - a laptop and a goody bag.
- Times of India

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

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