From May 27 to May 29, a very special competition will be celebrating a very special anniversary.
The annual Scripps National Spelling Bee, which is taking place at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center Hotel in National Harbor, Maryland, outside Washington DC, turns a hundred years old.
The competing students, aged 8 to 14, represent all 50 US states, the District of Columbia, and several countries, including Canada, Ghana, Kuwait and Nigeria.
The first desi to win the Bee was 13-year-old Balu Natarajan, then an 8th grader from Chicago, in 1985.
Since then, 29 Indian-American kids have won this coveted competition.
And for the last three years, it's been a hat-trick for the community -- Harini Logan won in 2022, Dev Shah in 2023 and Bruhat Soma in 2024.
Is 2025 the desi year as well?
As we wait, here are reactions from some desi kids during the quarterfinals of this year's tough contest.
The top ten who will compete in the final round are Esha Marupudi, Sarvadnya Kadam, Sarv Dharavane, Harini Murali, Aishwarya Kallakuri, Akshaj Somisetty, Faizan Zaki, Brian Liu and Oliver Halkett.
Photographs curated by Anant Salvi/Rediff
Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff
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