Just few days back I had covered the winner of National Geographic spelling bee, who happened to be an Indian American. Now we have another Indian descent winner of the equally prestigious Scripps.
Sameer Mishra won the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington on Friday by correctly spelling the word guerdon, which appropriately means reward.
Mishra, 13, from West Lafayette, Ind., won $35,000 in cash, a $2,500 U.S. savings bond and thousands of dollars worth of reference books.
Sameer also had the crowd in splits during the course of the tournament.
When told one of his words in the semifinals was a dessert, he deadpanned: “That sounds good right now.” He rolled his eyes and muttered “wonderful” when told that one of his words had five different language roots. He once asked “Are you sure there are no alternate pronunciations?” In another round, he uttered “That’s a relief” after initially mishearing the word “numnah”.
Sameer’s father moved from central India to America. I think he is a professor of microbiology.
