While the initial rounds had more than 200 schools participating, in the end only 17 of were short-listed from the city, two from Siliguri and one from Delhi.

“We have been holding spelling bee around the time of the Book Fair to celebrate the fair. The event was first held in 2007 and its popularity has now made us hold the event in other cities like New Delhi and Siliguri. Our goal is to eventually hold it in all the centres with the final in Kolkata,” said Moulik Berkana, Deputy Director, American Center.

Shreya Madhogarhia from Mahadevi Birla Girls High School was judged the winner, with Kashyap Jha of APJ School coming second and Pooja Pant of Springdales School, New Delhi, third.

The spelling bee is one of the most popular school competitions held in the US. “Although the competition emerged in the US, it has a lot of potential here in India, especially since the students are extremely bright knowing the meaning and usage of words even I am unaware of,” said Berkhana.

The initial stage of shortlisting the contestants in Kolkata during a written round saw nearly thousands of students trying their luck. Berkhana said the students’ familiarity with the American language perhaps helped them do so well.

While the students prepared hard for the competition, for most of them learning spellings and usages of new words is an everyday challenge.

In the US, the National Spelling Bee is sponsored by the biggest newspapers as well as is broadcasted on television. Apart from the students based in the US, students from Canada, Bahamas, New Zealand and Europe also participate at the event.

While in the initial stage a wide number of Kolkata schools participated, Berkhana said the finalists were all from English-medium schools who could make it due to their strong English background.