KOCHI: A 36-year-old from Thrissur, Arun Gokul, has won the national mascot design competition organised by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), with his entry emerging on top of 875 submissions from across the country. The winning design has now been adopted as the official mascot for Aadhaar, named Udai.
By the time Arun -- a BTech mechanical engineering graduate working with a logistics firm in Kochi -- learnt about the competition, he had only a few hours to send in his entry before the October 31 deadline.
“It was the evening of the last day,” Arun recalled.
“My friend rang me up, asking for help resizing an artwork he had created for a competition. While sharing the details, he suggested that I participate too.”The deadline was midnight.
“There were barely two or three hours left. Also, I’m not a professional artist. Not even an enthusiast. But I was free and thought I’d give it a shot, even though it was a last-minute effort,” he said.
With no access to professional design software, Arun worked using the default Paint tool on his computer and Canva, an online platform. After three hours, what appeared before him on the screen was, in his own words, “nothing compared to what his friend had created”.
“His design was elaborate, something along the lines of the Make in India artwork. Mine was very simple. Still, I made sure it met the contest guidelines — a happy face, non-offensive, appealing across age groups – and sent it in just before the deadline.”
Arun said Air India’s Maharaja mascot was an inspiration.
“The contest page itself mentioned it.” As weeks passed and the holiday season arrived, Arun forgot all about the competition.
In fact, he had even failed to save his artwork. It was only on December 28, when he received a call from the UIDAI office in Delhi, that the memory came rushing back.
“They told me my design had been shortlisted – out of over 800 entries. I was stunned. I hadn’t imagined anything like this, not even in my wildest dreams,” he said.
The excitement was soon followed by panic.
“That’s also when I remembered that I hadn’t saved the artwork. I managed to retrieve it after a lot of effort,” Arun said. Fortunately, UIDAI had already preserved the submitted file.
“That,” he said, “was a huge relief.” Winning, however, was still far from his mind. “On January 8, I watched the official mascot unveiling ceremony without any expectations. But when the design appeared on the screen, it looked strikingly familiar. Was it mine? I wondered. Even then, I dismissed the thought. There were many other candidates, and professionals too. And no name was announced, only the design,” Arun recalled.
The confirmation came later that day through another phone call from the UIDAI office. “They told me I had won. I was absolutely delighted – as were my parents and friends,” said Arun, who insisted that he has no formal training in art.