Spelling bees buzz at Amdavad show

Finally, the one challenge that kids all over the globe, particularly the US, loved to take up, Spelling Bee, has finally made its way into the vibrant land of Gujarat.

'India Spells 2009', a unique and scholarly education series in a fun-filled quiz format was organised in Ahmedabad on Monday at St. Xaviers Loyola Hall, under the patronage of Spelling Bee USA, where over 200 kids and 50 schools participated from across Gujarat. The Spelling Bee is a prestigious annual event in the US with a lineage of 83 years.

"It is a wonderful initiative and I think such competitions should be encouraged in India on a huge scale" said Bhavina Pathak, mother of a spell bee participant.

A unique initiative in the country, the contest - 'India Spells 2009' - will be conducted in schools across 11 cities (Delhi, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai).The winner of the grand finale will be sent to witness the Scripps National Spelling Bee contest in Washington on May 26 and 27, 2009 for a first hand experience of the event.

The competition divided in three phases, Phase I - Intra School Competition, Phase II - Inter School Competition per City and Phase 3 - pre-finale & grand finale. Based on the scores of each school, the top teams from each city would be invited to Mumbai to compete in the pre-finals followed by the grand finale on March 28.

"Calligraphy", "opaque", "ballerina" were among the hundreds of spellings the young state-level competitors had to spell correctly in the event. Over the past few years, "succedaneum", "prospicience", "autochthonous" and "appoggiatura" were spellings which were the final judges to test winners' abilities at the international spelling bee contests.