Sameer Mishra from Lafayette, Indiana got the word ‘numnah’ (saddle pad) at the National Spelling Bee last night. At first he thought the judges were calling him ‘numbnuts.’ He flashed a secret-brown-handshake smile when they told him the word is derived from Hindi. But here we are nearly 61 years after Indian independence, and poor kid has to furnish an archaic British transliteration, like rickshaw, Hindoo, Howrah, or Delhi. I was half expecting him to bust out the O.G. Hindi matras.

The wily eighth grader supplied the colonialist spelling, took home the big prize and won bragging rights over his poor sister Shruti, who’s doomed to marry a drug addict, blogger or (shudder) non-doctor. Joining Mishra in the top 12 were second place winner Sidharth Chand (Bloomfield Hills, Michigan), fourth place ties Samia Nawaz (Little Rock, Arkansas) and Kavya Shivashankar (Olathe, Kansas), and eighth place finisher Jahnavi Iyer (Enola, Pennsylvania).

All were last seen furiously chewing cumin and plotting their escapes.

Sameer was a crowd favorite throughout the tournament. When told one of his words in the semifinals was a dessert, he deadpanned: “That sounds good right now.” He rolled his eyes and muttered “wonderful” when told that one of his words had five different language roots. He once asked “Are you sure there are no alternate pronunciations?” In another round, he uttered “That’s a relief” after initially mishearing the word “numnah” (a type of sheepskin pad).

And what did he have to say while hoisting the heavy trophy? “I’m really, really weak.”

Sameer… won more than $40,000 in cash and prizes… His sister, Shruti… received her own big news: She was accepted to Princeton. “A big day for the family,” said Sameer’s father, Krishna Mishra, who moved to the United States from central India and teaches microbiology… [Link]

Canada infiltrated the bee once again:

All seven representatives from Canada were vanquished in a span of about 20 minutes in the first semifinal round. No Canadian has ever won the bee… 10-year-old Veronica, was eliminated on the French-rooted word “étagère.” “Very disappointing. Especially for Canadians to go down on French words.” [Link]

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