For the seventh year running, students of Indian origin won the US Spelling Bee, a contest that requires participants to spell complex words that mere mortals don't even seem to know the meanings of. The finals on Thursday night were jointly won by Vanya Shivashankar and Gokul Venkatachalam.
This year, 285 students reached the finals, a portion of which were aired on the ESPN channel. The ethnicity of the winners wasn't surprising. Participants of Indian origin have won the championship all but four times in the last 15 years. The dominance of South Asian champions has become so routine, it's begun to provoke abusive comments for the winners, The Washington Post reported this week.
But for others, it's great fodder for a little ironic humour. Here's a sketch by Hari Kondabolu on the phenomenon.
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#speller90 Vanya Shivashankar (KS) spelled the word 'scherenschnitte' correctly #spellingbee
— NationalSpellingBee (@ScrippsBee) May 29, 2015
#speller140 Gokul Venkatachalam becomes a co-champion by spelling the word 'nunatak' correctly #spellingbee
— NationalSpellingBee (@ScrippsBee) May 29, 2015This year, 285 students reached the finals, a portion of which were aired on the ESPN channel. The ethnicity of the winners wasn't surprising. Participants of Indian origin have won the championship all but four times in the last 15 years. The dominance of South Asian champions has become so routine, it's begun to provoke abusive comments for the winners, The Washington Post reported this week.
But for others, it's great fodder for a little ironic humour. Here's a sketch by Hari Kondabolu on the phenomenon.