Kottayam:

A Kerala girl has made it to the final 12 of Google’s Doodle 4 Google contest — A place in India I wish to visit — for students across India. Reba Philip, a sixth grade student of Pallikoodam School in Kottayam, chose to travel across Bay of Bengal and explore Andaman and Nicobar Islands, when most of her fellow competitors wanted to visit her home state.

This 11-year-old girl used colour pencils and a ball point pen to tell the world of her dream destination. The doodle is one among the 4 selected doodles in the Group 2 category.

You can vote for Reba’s and other children’s doodle here

When asked as to what was the concept behind her doodle Reba said, “I have always wanted to go to the Andmans. I love beaches. The photographs of the Andamans have always left me mesmerised. So I decided to create a doodle which represented the Andamans.”

 How has Reba defined her doodle? Reba said that the doodle portrays the various elements of the islands. G stands for surfing, O is for Jarawa Tribe playing drum, G is the endemic bird called Andaman wood Pigeon, L is a rough map of the island and E is Dugong – a marine animal found nearby.

Reba’s doodle depicts various aspects of the Andamans. It took Reba an entire day to create the doodle. The doodle showcases everything from fun and frolic on the Island to its tribes and wildlife.

Reba has seen the other doodles in the fray and thinks “it is going to be a tough competition.”

Proud and excited about her daughter’s achievement, Reba’s mother Julie said, “We are very excited about the results. I was not even aware of what she had been up to, until she came up to get the drawing scanned and uploaded on the website.”

The doodle will be open for voting from October 27, 2014 to November 10, 2014.

The contest commenced on August 19, 2014 and was held in three categories. Group 1 consisted of those students studying from Grade 1 to Grade 3, while Group 2 includes those students studying from Grade 4 to Grade 6. Group 3 includes those studying from Grade 7 to Grade 10.

Each of the 12 finalists will be given a ChromeBook Laptop and a certificate. The winner of the contest would be awarded a holiday to any destination he or she would like to go for 3 nights and 4 days along with their parents.

source: http://www.english.manoramaonline.com / On Manorama / Home> News> Sci-Tech / by Gitanjali Diwakar, Assistant Content Producer / Monday – October 27th, 2014