Spell right

It was Piroune who is the “Spelling Champ.”

September 07, 2009 05:39 pm | Updated 05:39 pm IST

Awesome anchor: Rajat Kapoor

Awesome anchor: Rajat Kapoor

When was the last time you sat down to learn spellings of difficult words by heart? Piroune Balachandran, a 14-year-old from Delhi studying in Doon School, Dehradun, became the trophy holder of “Spelling Champs”, the show on ESPN that recently concluded as the competition reached the final round.

The show, an adaptation of the show “Spelling Bee” on U.S. television, was hosted by Rajat Kapoor the famous television personality. The panel of word commissioners included noted novelist Rana Dasgupta and English language experts from the British Council who gave invaluable inputs to the ever inquiring contestants.

Read and read

“It was interesting to be on television,” said a confident Pirouane. He says he reads a lot, and this habit helped him win the show. “Our student coordinator, John S. Xavier, selected six students out of whom I was selected by ESPN to be on the show,” he added.

Piroune walked away not only with the coveted trophy but also the grand prize of a dream trip to South Africa for the ICC Champions Trophy in October.

The other three semi-finalists were Ananya Das, Shubhangi Sinha and Rohan Bhatia.

The final four contestants got a series of books from publisher Harper Collins.

In appreciation of their spirit of participation, all 52 contestants got a gift pack from Scholastics.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.