Mumbai: Around 150 international participants stayed away from Asia's first International Spelling Bee competition held during the weekend in Mumbai. They were apprehensive of terror attacks in the country.
"Around 150 students from UAE had made it to the finals of the international level. However, due to the bomb blasts in the country, parents were not comfortable with sending their children to India," said P Suresh Kumar, director of MaRRS Intellectual Services, a Kerala-based organisation that conducted the contest.
The international level, held at Vibgyor High School at Goregaon on Saturday, saw 300 students from across the country spell difficult English words. "The competition has two rounds - the written and oral. The most challenging is the oral round where we have to spell out words which are pronounced in British or American accents," explained finalist Pavan R, a first-year engineering student from Mysore.
Most of the students in the competition were first timers who had joined the contest for the novelty. "At my level, most students are participating in regular contests such as elocution, essay writing etc. This is a unique competition which is also very challenging. I had never heard of words such as thingmabob, paynim, obelisk etc and we have to spell them," said Utkarsha Kotian, class XII student of Ruia College.
Since the past three years, the organisation has been conducting the national-level spelling bee contest. However, with increasing international interest, now they chose to take it to foreign countries. "We will hold the competition at UAE in November separately," Kumar said.
