Drats. After years of dominating the Spelling Bee, Indian American kids attempted to conquer the globe by claiming the top spot at the National Geographic Bee. Victory was not to be but a hearty congratulations goes to fourteen-year-old Karan Takhar from Rhode Island who claimed second place and will rise to the throne if the first place winner gets his knee clubbed in a freak accident or something. From NationalGeographic.com:
The National Geographic Bee champion for 2005 is Nathan Cornelius of Minnesota.
The homeschooled 13-year-old from Cottonwood, in the southwestern part of the state, edged out Rhode Island’s Karan Takhar, a 14-year-old eighth grader at the Gordon School in East Providence, in a tense competition today at the National Geographic Society’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Samuel Brandt, 13, in eighth grade at Roosevelt Middle School in Eugene, Oregon, came in third.
All three boys are three-time winners of their respective state-level National Geographic Bee competitions.
The Hindustan Times reports on Karan:
The question that eventually foxed Karan but helped Nathan clinch the championship was: Name the dammed-up river that forms the artificial Lake Gatun in the Panama Canal system. The Answer: Chagres River.
Apart from Karan, two other Indian students, Bonny Jain and Tejas Raje, were among the 10 finalists in the competition, now in its 17th year.
Damn that Panama Canal system. IF ONLY we hadn’t given it back to the Panamanians when our lease ran out it would have been higher in our collective consciousnessÂ’ and Karan would have gotten that answer right. I hold that liberal President Carter responsible for this.
