Sunday, June 6, 2010

Spellbound

Once again an Indian-American won the Scripps National Spelling Bee contest and took the Championship Trophy and $40,000 in cash and prizes. She is Anamika Veeramani, a 14 year old girl from Ohio State. In the finals, she spelled the word “stromuhr” correctly. The meaning: It is a tool that measures the speed of blood through artery.

Congratulations to Anamika. Well done. Her parents Alagaiya and Malar immigrated from Chennai, India.

Incidentally, this year’s runner up also is an Indian-American, Shantanu Srivatsa, a 13 year old from North Dakota. Shantanu could not spell the word “ochidore” correctly. (I have no idea what “ochidore” means.) Congratulations to Shantanu also for winning the second prize.

Anamika became the third consecutive Indian-American spelling bee champion. In 2009, the winner was Kavya Shivshankar. The winner in 2008 was Sameer Mishra.

This is the 83rd annual spelling bee contest. Indian-Americans took the trophy in the last eight out of twelve years.

1999 - Nupur Lala

2000 – George Abraham Thampy

2002 – Pratyush Buddiga

2003 – Sai Gunturi

2005 – Anurag Kashyap

2008 – Sameer Mishra

2009 – Kavya Shivshankar

2010 – Anamika Veeramani

When asked by the reporters, Anamika’s father, Alagaiya Veeramani said he had no clue why Indian-Americans seem to do so well at the competition. He guessed it has something to do with hard-work ethic.

20 comments:

  1. We, Indians, are always good at spellbee contest. I wrote an article on Kavya last year. I saw Anamika's photo today, in Hindu. I missed this year but we watched this contest last year. It is quite tough.

    Congratulations!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for your comments Sandhya. Indians are hard workers. To qualify for the national contest, one has to win the regional championship. One of the students who qualified for the national contest this year was Vanya Shivshankar. She is only 8 years old and sister of last year's winner, Kavya Shivshankar.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for your comments Titaxy. I am glad you enjoyed this post.

    ReplyDelete
  4. SG,

    This story is on several blogs and newspapers but your coverage is the best in terms of size, relevant information and picture.

    Good job :)_

    A

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for your comments A. And, thank you also for your complements. This makes me more interested to write posts like this.

    ReplyDelete
  6. youngsters these days are very brilliant,exposure is very high and plus smart work yields results.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks for your comments Chitra. Yes, today's youngsters are very brilliant.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Nice post.. I'm impressed! But I do wonder why such a HUGE trophy is presented to the SpellBee champions!! :-D

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks for your comments Lostworld. You asked why such a HUGE trophy is presented. That is a good question. (It means I don't know the answer.)

    ReplyDelete
  10. I agree, Indians do work hard :)
    and about why such a huge trophy is presented, I think the contest requires minimal investment and the sponsors think "oh what the heck, lets spend some extra money on trophy" :D

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks for your comments Shruthi. Your explanation makes sense to me. Thanks for the input.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Good job Anamika! Good job SG!

    ReplyDelete
  13. So what? She won a spelling contest.
    I’m not impressed.

    Regards,
    Dan Quayle
    (that is Quayle with an ‘E’ at the end)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Thanks for your comments NRIGirl. And, welcome to my blog. Yes, Anamika has done a good job.

    NRIGirl, please visit here as often as you can. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Thanks for your comments Mr. Vice President. Anamika is only a 14 year old child and she is no match for your intelligence. She can never spell potato as "POTATOE", with a "E" at the end. For spelling like that you became an overnight sensation.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Wonderful post. I really appreciate from bottom of my heart to Anamika for her brilliant performance. Congratulations for making all of us proud of you.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Thanks for your comments Babli. Our congratulations to Anamika.

    ReplyDelete
  18. We have the brains. But we also need the right environment to blossom and be appreciated. Congratulations to the new Spell Queen.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Thanks for your comments Radha. Yes, we need the right environment.

    ReplyDelete