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U.S. National Spelling Bee Champion Was Born in India but His Experience is All American By Oksana Dragan Washington, D.C. 13 June 2005 Anurag Kashyap with the winner's cup at the 2005 U.S. National Spelling Bee The National Spelling Bee is a peculiarly American institution, where school children aged 9 to 14 take turns spelling aloud English words of increasing and sometimes ludicrous difficulty. Yet the champion of this year's competition, held earlier this month in Washington, was Anurag Kashyap, an exuberant 13-year-old whose parents are immigrants from India. In this edition of New American Voices Mr. And Mrs....

Anurag Kashyap Wins National Spelling Bee Thursday, June 02, 2005 WASHINGTON — Bursting into tears, eighth-grader Anurag Kashyap (search) of California became the U.S. spelling champ Thursday, beating out 272 other spellers in a tough two days of competition. He said he felt "just pure happiness." Anurag, 13, of Poway, clinched "appoggiatura," a melodic tone, to take home some $30,000 in prizes. He won in the 19th round of the 78th Annual National Scripps Spelling Bee. Also among 27 spellers remaining at the end of the sixth round Thursday afternoon were a half dozen home-schoolers. Home-schooled students have won twice,...