E-Paper
Bee in their heads
Desi kids?ve won in five of the last seven years. More than a quarter of the 40 winners in recent Intel Science Talent Search being children of immigrants.
It’s good to hear that Indian-American students have once again swept the honours in the annual National Geographic Champion Bee, held in Washington DC last Wednesday. There seems to have been little to differentiate between the topper, 12-year-old Bonny Jain and the runners-up, Yeshwanth Kandimalla and Neeraj Sirdeshmukh as they left behind a field of more than a million contestants to grab the top spots. So habituated have desi kids in the US become to dominating this -- and the coveted national Spelling Bee -- that it’d have been a surprise only if they had not do so well.
Desi kids’ve won in five of the last seven years. More than a quarter of the 40 winners in recent Intel Science Talent Search being children of immigrants. How do these kids invariably chalk up such a remarkable string of successes at the top level, despite Indians making up less than a percent of the US population? Immigrant pluck probably plays a big role for the Indian-American community in the US.
For the average such family, educational background helps. Having competed ferociously to get into the best Indian schools themselves before heading for the US, it’s only natural for Indian parents to show single-minded devotion to drilling their youngsters on all subjects -- just as American parents help their fledgling gymnasts and tennis players. Is it then any wonder these kids turn out to be class toppers or brainiacs so often?