9-YEAR-OLD ANIRUDH, SWEEPS AUSTRALIAN SPELLING BEE CONTEST AND WON $50,000

Anirudh Kathirvel, a nine-year-old Indian-origin boy is Australia’s new spelling champion after he won the 50,000 dollars ‘The Great Australian Spelling Bee’ competition. Anirudh Kathirvel, born in Melbourne to a Tamilian couple won 50,000 dollars education scholarship along with an impressive 10,000 dollars worth goods for his school on Tuesday.

Could not believe his luck after winning the scholarship and asked his fellow spellers to “pinch” him, Said Anirudh. “I need to rub my eyes and see if this is a dream,” he said adding, “Nope. Nope. Nope. Real. I can’t describe it. It’s like the best day of my life.” His favourite word to spell was ‘euouae’ as he liked the structure of the word as it was the longest word with consecutive vowels, Said Anirudh.

“Some of the other words I like to spell are feuilleton, cephalalgia, ombrophobous,” he said adding that he loves watching Indian movies. Anirudh, whose parents Prithiviraj and Sujatha also migrated to Australia from Tamil Nadu 16 years ago, said, “I started reading from the age of two and slowly my reading passion evolved into my love for words. My parents encouraged and helped me to build up on my spelling.”