Indian spells his way to success

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script></div> <div align="left" style="position:relative; left: 0"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="left" border="1" width="23.3%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" e6e6e6=""> <div class="Normal"><img src="/photo/721009.cms" alt="/photo/721009.cms" border="0" /></div> </td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" e6e6e6=""> <div class="Normal">Akshay Buddiga, after he collapsed during the competition</div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal"><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">SAN FRANCISCO: It was India shining all the way at the very prestigious 77th Annual Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee competition held from June 1-3 at Washington DC.Doing India proud was 13-year old Akshay Buddiga, an eight grader from Colorado Springs, who won the second place.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">The competition is open to students who have not reached their 16th birthday on or before the date of the national finals and who have not passed beyond the eighth grade at the time of their school finals. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">David Scott Tidmarsh, a 14- year old eighth grader from Indiana reigned supreme after he successfully took on 264 other strong participants. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">David negotiated all the 14 rounds correctly before he stuck gold in the 15th and last round by spelling autochthonous (indigenous) correctly. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">A visibly elated Tidmarsh walked away with the top-prize package of $12,000 and an engraved cup from the bee, plus an additional $5,000, encyclopedias, a $1,000 savings bond and a reference library from other sponsors.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">But, it was the bright looking, bespectacled and lanky Buddiga who took the cake when it came to popularity. The Indian American teenager got dizzy and collapsed right on the stage just moments after he was being asked to spell a word, drawing gasps from the huge audience. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">But, within seconds of scrunching down, Akshay stood up and, to the amazement of the judges, immediately started spelling his word: "alopecoid," (like a fox). He got it correct, drawing a standing ovation from the euphoric audience. </span><br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal">Akshay made it into the final round while sitting on a chair at the microphone. Though the organizers were anxious, he managed to accurately answer one more spelling. In the final round it was ''schwarmerei'' (to be overly enthusiastic) that cast him off. He spelled it incorrectly as ''svermari'' and lost it by just a few letters.<br /><br />Akshay has also won the Colorado state championship in the 2004 Reader''s Digest National Word Power Challenge.<br /><br />When contacted for a comment on the telephone, Paige Kimble, the bee director said, "To me, that''s what you call grit. It was an extraordinary circumstance." When quizzed about the increasing number of Indian winners that Bee has every year, Kimble attributed it to their education oriented family culture. "Education is high on every Indian family''s agenda. That to me is at the core of their success story at Bee!" she added.<br /><br />This is not the first time that an Indian has excelled at this competition. Three of the last five years'' number one winners have been Indians. <br /><br />Other Indian Americans participants this year included Keshav Pillai, (14) from Parma Heights, Ohio, who reached the seventh round and Rajiv Tarigopula, (11) who reached round 6 before tripling over a difficult word. <br /><br />Among those eliminated was 10-year-old Samir Patel, who was considered a favourite and had been deemed a force to be reckoned with by last year''s winner, Sai Gunturi.<br /><br />The competition which was telecast live on national television draws millions of viewers across the country, every year, to witness what is one of the most awaited student competitions in United States.</div> </div>