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Brown in America

Desi kid becomes youngest speller in Bee history

By: Santosh :+: Under: Brown in America
On: ⋅ May 30, 2008 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment
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8-year old second grader, Sriram Hathwar, became the youngest speller in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Sriram correctly spelt “Elicitation” but was disqualified because of his score on a written spelling test. [DNA India]

I used to be largely disinterested at any mention of all these “Indian kids” doing well in the spelling bee. Then I watched “Akeelah and the Bee” and that changed my perspective on spelling bees. To those who have not, I’d highly recommend “Akeelah and the Bee“. Back to the main story, other kids that advanced to the semifinals:
From DNA India

Easun Arunachalam ( steeve), Arushi Jauhari (leptocercal), Shiva Kangeyan ( ozostomia), Vaibhav Vavilala (luftmensch), Sameer Mishra (quadrat), Kavya Shivashankar (bizarrerie), Akshat Shekhar (monophthalmic), Sidharth Chand (purslane) and Jahnavi Iyer (trochophore).

Another interesting story is that of Samir Patel which was on the front page of ESPN.com. [ESPN] (tip Anantha via email)

Samir at 14 is too old for the contest now. He was a legend of sorts absolutely decimating his competition but never winning the big one. Critics had unfairly dubbed him the “Dan Marino of Spelling Bee”, when he tripped over “clevis” and ended up with no prize to show in all his five visits to the Bee. What about his social life?
From ESPN

“I don’t really think girls would go for my looks,” he says. “I’m not the most handsome person ever. My mom thinks I’m too young. Apparently, I’m not allowed to get married ’til I’m 30.”

I’m sure when he’s 30 he’ll be fighting off his parents who want him to “see” a girl of their choice.

For those interested, the finals are tonight (Friday) on ABC from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET.

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