Headline, May31, 2014

''' Yo VISHNU : YO YO INDINS 

STODEENTS SPELYNG GUD?.....

 HY HAH ! '''

C FOR CHAMPION  -to watch Indian American student Arvind Mahankali hold his nerve on the final word  -knaidel-,  to win the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Historic India has rarely produced the world's greatest athletes. And I am talking track events here. It took India,  the second largest nation on earth,  108 years to win its first:

Individual Olympic Gold Medal . That was in 2008, in the  10-m air rifle event, and although  108  was a highly auspicious number for that champion Indian mental athlete, the revered Gautama Buddha, it's still a long, long time to wait.

At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Mother India,  of billion citizens  came away with a single bronze, leaving it tied with the likes of Barbados  -population 270,000-  and Kuwait, in 71st  place.

Tiny, tiny Cuba, with a population smaller than that of Mumbai, claimed 29 medals in that same Olympiad,  which means,  by one reckoning  that one Cuban has roughly the same athletic strength  as  2,600  Indians.

But give the  ! Indian Students !  the honour and the chance to spell  cyanophphycran, though and you find them high and mighty. Just see and note:

The winner of the  86th Scripps National Spelling Bee, was Arvind Mahankali, the second place finisher was also of Indian descent. So was the third. And don't forget, that a year before-

The top three were also all ethnically Indian.

In fact, Indians have claimed the crown  six years  in a row, as 11 year-olds grapple with such words as dehnstufe, schwannoma and schwarmerei. Sounds familiar but shouldn't it be the German Students dominating this competition?  

What Venezuelans are to  Miss Universe contests, the Indian students are to spelling  ptyalagogue  and  paryphodrome 

As Jamaicans seem to rule the  100-m sprint  -it matters not whether they represent Britain or  Canada   or even, at times,  Jamaica,  so the Indians seem to be the fastest minds:

On the single track   -studies have found that South Indians speak more rapidly than any group on earth. This may be no more useful a form of gymnastics than those that some lucky ones got witness-

At a showcase auditorium filled with 5-year old acrobats in North Korea,  but the fact remains that the champion spellers of the  U.S.  even have names most Americans can't spell-

Whether it's Snigdha Nandipati  2012 Champion or  Nupur Lala  a star in the documentary  Spellbound.

Indians have been famous,  of course, for their feats of memorization since the time of Macaulay  -it's part of a traditional  pundit's training of a child. 

''And I met a  79  years old professor in Varanasi not long ago,'' recalls the author,'' who began reciting the first three books of  Paradise Lost  to me. But rote learning skills don't explain why-

So much brainpower  in  Silicon Valley  comes  from the  Indian Institute of Technology.

Indian Americans are not only the highest-earning group in the U.S. but more Indian Americans in the  U.S. hold  higher degrees   -almost 40%-  than Americans in general hold first degrees -28%

It's intriguing to think of what specious explanations may account for this''.

The honour and serving of the post continues: Just don't miss the next one.    

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of India. See Ya all on !WOW!  -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' A Dream Never Deferred '''

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless