In a devastating blow to the South Asian community, the 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee title unbelievably fell to an outsider, a local American. Katharine Close, an eighth grader from New Jersey, pilfered the $30,000 in cash, scholarships and bonds, among other prizes, for correctly spelling "ursprache” which means “a parent language, especially one reconstructed from the evidence of later languages." The carnage didn’t end there. No Indian finished in the top50 with only Kavya Shivashanker from Olathe Kansas finishing a disappointing 69th and Spelling Illustrated’s Cover-boy pre-season #1 Rajiv Tarigopula from St.Louis MO finishing a shocking 140th. Indian officials here at the Grand Hyatt in Washington DC were crushed. “We are terribly disappointed in these results. Our national shame knows no bounds at this moment” shared spokesman Mr. Farook Nasimuddin who subsequently burst into tears and was comforted by the parents of Ms. Shivshanker.

Katherine Close, the non-Indian winner of the 2006 Spelling Bee.

Rioting broke out throughout India following Spelling Bee results .

The failure has been truly shocking. Students of Indian origin have dominated the Spelling Bee with five winners in the past seven years. Balu Natarajan of Chicago IL started the national obsession with the first Indian win back in 1985 spelling “milieu”. This was followed by Ragashree Ramachandran’s big win in 1988 with “elegiacal”. Interest led to the formation of tutoring companies, spelling television shows, building an entire spelling industry which fueled economic growth in the 90s.This ultimately led to the establishing of the Indian National Academy of Spelling in 1996. When Tampa’s Nupur Lala took the title in 1999 with “logorrhea”, it started a stretch of winners through 2005’s Anurag Kashyap‘s thrilling overtime win with “appoggiatura”.

In anticipation of another win in 2006, an Indian contingent of four thousand government officials, spelling professionals, press television crews, water-boys and gulab jamun-carriers sat huddled at the event. Clearly the national impact of the loss was significant and it was summed up best by the favorite going in to the event.

“I feel like crap” lamented a visibly inconsolable participant “and that’s spelt S-H-I-T”. Indian Minister Harpreet Singh shared in the disappointment and declared Friday a national day of mourning. “We are a proud nation known for its academic achievement and thousands of years of spelling heritage. Back when Sage Durgananda first taught Yuga how to spell “OM”, spelling has been ingrained in our culture. Today’s disappointing finish will only embolden us to defeat our enemies and regain what is rightfully Indian”.

The prime minister’s words while poignant did little to comfort the Indian contingent whose wailing could be heard throughout Independence Concourse at the Hyatt. While efforts to prepare for the 2007 Bee may begin soon, the planned parade in New Delhi’s Raj Ghat was cancelled and for the Indian nation, that’s just S-A-D.