On Tuesday, May 28, out of 565 contests, seven teenagers of Indian origin won the Scripps National Spelling Bee. These seven are out of the total eight winners of the prestigious competition.
All eight winners will take home the title and $50,000 or over Rs 34 lakh in cash. The champions are Rishik Gandhasri (13), Saketh Sundar (13), Shruthika Padhy (13), Sohum Sukhatankar (13), Abhijay Kodali (12), Rohan Raja (13), Christopher Serrao (13), and Erin Howard (14).
Gandhasri won by spelling “auslaut”, Howard with “erysipelas”, Sundar with “bougainvillea”, Padhy with “aiguillette”, Sukhatankar with “pendeloque”, Kodali with “palama”, Serrao with “cernuous”, and Raja with “odylic”.
In a heartwarming video, the “elite eight” congratulated each other on the historic win—the Scripps National Spelling Bee has not had co-champions since the competition begin.
The competition was broadcasted in India through ESPN.
What is the Scripps National Spelling Bee?
A spelling bee is a spelling competition where students of all ages compete with each other on their spelling skills.
In a series of rounds, students are asked to come to the mic and spell a word that the host recites. The student can ask for more clarification on the word, such as its definition and origin, and request the host to use it in a sentence. If the student spells the word correctly, they move on to the next round.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee has been around for 90 years—it first started in 1925 when nine newspapers banded together to host it. In pop culture, spelling bees are portrayed as tense and competitive events that are still fun and educational.
“Our purpose is to helps students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts, and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives,” said Scripps.
Ever since 2014, young Indian-American students have been bagging the championship at the Scripps National Spelling Bee and the National Geographic Spelling Bee. India has its own fair share of spelling bees at the local school, state, and national levels.
Indians dominate abroad
A report in the BBC explains that Indian families are academically driven and steer their children towards science and mathematics and academic competitions more than western families, who choose to focus on the arts and athletics. This may explain the huge success of Indian-Americans at spelling bees.
Indian-American news satirist Hasan Minaj is a contemporary example of a successful South Asian, who is grown to be a household name. He often discusses topics of relevance to South Asia, such as the Indian general election or corruption within the IPL, on his Netflix show Patriot Act.
Mindy Kaling and Kunal Nayyar are also famous for portraying Indian-American heritage in their roles and TV shows.
Most recently, Homes, a hip hop dance crew from Mumbai, took home $1 million in cash after winning World of Dance, an American dance reality TV show. The 14-member dance crew from Nalasopara made a name for itself as international artists.
Mumbai-based filmmaker Guneet Monga’s production house, Shikya Entertainment, also won an Oscar for its work on Period. End of Sentence, a documentary on menstruation.
Over the years, more and more Indian names and culture have been dominating the international stage in arts and academics, and the likes of Anil Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Kalpana Chawla, and Deepika Padukone opening the floodgates to overseas has just given a further boost to that.
Rhea Arora is a Staff Writer at Qrius
Stay updated with all the insights.
Navigate news, 1 email day.
Subscribe to Qrius