Image: D Udaya Kumar, the creator of the Rupee symbol.
The young man, who has given the Indian rupee a symbol, has been relentlessly pursuing a little-known art called typography over the last five years.
He took up this specialised subject despite opposition from his parents, who wanted to him to become a doctor or an IAS officer.
On July 15, D Udaya Kumar became more famous than most doctors or IAS officers in India. He has achieved celebrity status after his design for the Indian rupee currency was approved by the government on Thursday.
“It is a great honour to be a part of India’s history,” said an excited Udaya while speaking with rediff.com.
The 31-year-old PhD-holder from IIT-Bombay who was set to join as a professor at IIT-Guwahati’s department of design on Friday had to postpone the date of joining after he heard that his design had been chosen as the rupee symbol. He has been talking to the Indian and international media incessantly. His cellphone didn’t stop ringing till late into the night.
At the Indian Institute of Technology, Udaya Kumar has been pursuing research in esoteric subjects like evolution of the ancient Tamil script from palm leaf etching to printing press. His ultimate aim is to resurrect regional language scripts in India.
“India has some of the greatest scripts in the world, but unfortunately they have not been studied properly and in a scientific manner,” says this ardent admirer of Van Gogh ma sterpieces.
Indian schoolchildren form the shape of the new symbol for the Rupee at a school in Chennai. India unveiled a symbol for its rupee currency that it hopes will become as globally recognised as signs for the dollar, the yen, the pound and the Euro. Ministers made their final decision at a cabinet meeting after examining a shortlist of five designs. The winning design was inspired by the letter “R” in the Roman alphabet and “Ra” from the ancient Devanagari script used in Hindi.
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