Indian kids Sai wins Spelling Bee Championship

Another Indian boy has depicted that Indians are not far behind those form other in intellectuality. Sai Gunturi a 13 year old eight grader from Dallas has spelled out p-o-c-o-c-u-r-a-n-t-e (which means nonchalance) to win the 76th US National Scripps Howard Spelling Bee Championship.

There were 251 finalist and Sai had spelled the word right to beat New York's Evelyn Blacklock. She had earlier fluffed on 'gnathonic' (which means fawning attention; she was misled into spelling it 'nathonic' because the 'g' is silent).

Among the words Sai spelt correctly to win the title were marmoraceous, mistassini, solfeggio, voussoir, halogeton, dipnoous, peirastic, rhathymia. Sai was sponsored by the Dallas Morning News, which not only profiled him extensively before the competition, but splashed his victory on front cover.

For the Gunturis, spelling has become a family affair. Sai's sister Nivedita is a 1997 finalist and he had to beat his brother Abhiram in the state level finals this year to advance to the national round.

Following his victory Sai told the media that he hoped to become a genetic engineer - his father is a chemical engineer - after attending to the more youthful task of spending his prize money on video games.