Drats. After years of dominating the Spelling Bee, Indian American kids attempted to conquer the globe by claiming the top spot at the National Geographic Bee. Victory was not to be but a hearty congratulations goes to fourteen-year-old Karan Takhar from Rhode Island who claimed second place and will rise to the throne if the first place winner gets his knee clubbed in a freak accident or something. From NationalGeographic.com:
The National Geographic Bee champion for 2005 is Nathan Cornelius of Minnesota.
The homeschooled 13-year-old from Cottonwood, in the southwestern part of the state, edged out Rhode Island’s Karan Takhar, a 14-year-old eighth grader at the Gordon School in East Providence, in a tense competition today at the National Geographic Society’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Samuel Brandt, 13, in eighth grade at Roosevelt Middle School in Eugene, Oregon, came in third.
All three boys are three-time winners of their respective state-level National Geographic Bee competitions.
The Hindustan Times reports on Karan:
The question that eventually foxed Karan but helped Nathan clinch the championship was: Name the dammed-up river that forms the artificial Lake Gatun in the Panama Canal system. The Answer: Chagres River.
Apart from Karan, two other Indian students, Bonny Jain and Tejas Raje, were among the 10 finalists in the competition, now in its 17th year.
Damn that Panama Canal system. IF ONLY we hadn’t given it back to the Panamanians when our lease ran out it would have been higher in our collective consciousnessÂ’ and Karan would have gotten that answer right. I hold that liberal President Carter responsible for this.
homeschooling: the answer to the insanity of desi parents.
Why don’t we be good sports and offer a hearty congratulations to the 13 year old grand prize winner as well? That’s a job well done.
why are you focusing on these academic achievements by Indian Americans? Aren’t 2nd generation Indian Americans simply Americans? If you want feel some sort of pride in academic accomplishments of Indians, then why not focus on India and its people?
then why not focus on India and its people?
No. Second generation Indian Americans are not simply Americans. Let Indians from India focus on India and its people. There are plenty of bloggers doing so. I am American so I choose to focus on South Asian Americans.
If they choose to self-identify as such, then yes. If not, then no. Who are you (or who am I) to tell people how they should see themselves on the basis of their life experiences?
jd: Fine, you win. We want Sabeer Bhatia back 😉
I think you should focus more on me.
If you haven’t done so, I’d recommend that you rent “Spellbound”.
We’re still waiting for the report back on Desi Monopoly.
Forget Desi Monopoly. Have you watched the Kung-Fu Dog movies I gave the link for on the other thread?
Read something about an Indian board game on this site and just wanted to pitch in with the fact that I came across one: it’s fantastic!! It’s called Bollywood Masti and it has all kinds of fun trivia questions on Bollywood movies…if you’re into your Shah Rukh, Amitabh etc, you should probably check this out. I think this is the website but if not, google it. http://www.mastigames.com