AGENCIES[ SATURDAY, JUNE 04, 2005 01:05:42 AM ]
WASHINGTON: Indian American Anurag Kashyap, from Poway, California, has won the 78th Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee competition. Anurag, 13, bagged the prize by spelling correctly the word 'appoggiatura' (which means short note placed before a longer one). Interestingly, he had never used the musical word before he cracked it to land on top of the spelling world in Washington on Thursday.
All three runners-up hail from South Asia. Another Indian American, Samir Sudhir Patel, 11, from Texas, had to settle for a tie for second place. He was the youngest of all in the final excruciating rounds and lost the championship when he misspelled "roscian."
A composed Anurag literally cruised through the toughest words. Apart from the word that clinched the title, he correctly spelt cabochon, Priscilla, oligopsony, sphygmomanometer, prosciutto, rideau, pompier, terete, tristachyous, schefflera, ornithorhynchous, agio, agnolotti, peccavi, ceraunograph, exsiccosis and hodiernal.
"But it was not so easy", he said while receiving his trophy. Lost for words, he could just say, "it is just amazing".
His second time here prepared him well for the bee and he had resolved to "study harder and win it" Anurag will take home $22,000 in cash, a $5,000 college scholarship, books and a $1,000 savings bond.
The national spelling bee, a well established American tradition, has 273 finalists, aged nine to 14, meeting at a plush Washington hotel. Many of them are children of immigrants, absorbed in their parents' desire to see them integrated.
"Most parents aren't natives," said John Mathis, of Mississippi whose daughter Meg was eliminated among the 40 finalists. "They usually have a stronger work ethic. The children study six to seven hours a day. Their recent immigration is an additional motor, to show they fit in by succeeding."
Alka Singh, 35, seven months pregnant and radiant in a sky blue sari, is not too concerned when her son is knocked out. At only nine he's one of the youngest contenders. If it appears that many children who originate on the Indian subcontinent end up in the finals of the US spelling championship, it's because, "School is very important to us," said Singh. "The benchmark is different, much more demanding in India. It's very important to go to college and do well. Here, if kids want to drop out or don't care to take this or that class, their parents don't care, they let them."
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1132145,curpg-2.cms