Bhavan’s holds finale of 4th Spell Bee contest
‘Spell-tacular Gladiators’
KUWAIT CITY, Feb 4: The ‘Spelltacular Gladiators’ armed with letters and words fought vigorously in the coliseum of knowledge, and in times, like mystical beings, transforming into bees and butterflies collecting nectar of letters to store in their arc-‘hives’ of achievements as the grand finale of the fourth edition of Bharatiya Vidhya Bhavan’s GCC Spell Bee, a spell-the-word contest, culminated at Indian Educational School, Kuwait, in the most majestic manner this month.
The school auditorium took the shape of an amphitheatre where spectators fidgeted and grimaced in anticipation for the fight of the year. The chief guest, Ms Ann Newman, Department of English Language and Literature, Gulf University of Science and Technology, Kuwait, along with the guest of honor Dr Shashiranjan Yadav, Vice-Chancellor, Indian Institute of Teacher Education Gujarat, India, graced the day of grandeur.
Suresh V. Balakrishnan VicePrincipal Middle and Senior wing IES and Ms. Jaemi Byju Head of the Department of English, Middle and Senior wings IES were the chief pronouncers of the day along with E.P. Prasad, senior faculty, the Department of English being the assistant pronouncer.
The contestants from different schools in Kuwait were categorized and seated on the dais with their counterparts sitting and churning their brain cells at different locations in the Middle East in real time.
The program started with the recitation of verses from the Holy Quran followed by the Kuwait National Anthem, lighting of the lamp by Newman and Dr Yadav, N. K. Ramachandran Menon, Chairman Bhavan’s Middle East; T. Premkumar, Principal, Indian Educational School; Mahesh Iyer, Principal, Smart Indian School; Suresh. V. Balakrishnan, Vice-Principal Middle and Senior IES and the GCC Coordinator, and Mrs Muneera Mammukutty, the Country Coordinator Kuwait Chapter.
Balakrishnan welcomed the gathering and shared with everyone his thoughts on life in general and language in particular. Iyer aired his views on English grammar and literature through his speech of felicitation. Liju Joseph, Department of English, IES, briefed the audience on the importance of Bhavans Spell Bee and its impact on young linguists.
The spellers were taken for a roller coaster ride of words of extreme complexity and simplicity, and they all gleefully rode along artfully dodging the cleverly laid traps of letters.
The audience in the auditorium and the many thousands glued to the live streaming were fallen through the void of a whirlpool of words into a virtual world of letters which eventually entrapped them all for a few hours to let them watch in awe one of the most adrenalinrushing arcade games of the alphabet.
After 3 hours of brain racking, the regal ride came to an end with a bee dance by the charismatic students of IES breaking the spell and setting some fire work of elegant steps in the auditorium. Meenakshi Nayyar , Vice-Principal Co-Curricular Activities declared the final result of the Bhavan’s GCC Spell Bee Championship.
The winners are: Category 1: Parth Gupta, Bahrain Indian School Bahrain (1st place), Jemi Eldho, Private International English School, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2nd place), Malavika Vinod, Indian Community School Khaitan, Kuwait (3rd place) and Abhinav Ashokan, Al Saad Indian School Al Ain, UAE (3rd place). Category 2: Rahul Wavare, British School of Kuwait (1st place), Aarush, Private International English School, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2nd place), Manini Laslit Desai, Bahrain Indian School Bahrain (3rd place). Category 3: Nevin Noji Vaidyan, Indian Educational School Kuwait (1st place), Arjun N. Anooj, Private International English School Abu Dhabi, UAE (2nd place), Steve Chalil Biju, Bahrain Indian School Bahrain (3rd place). Category 4: Shad Ahmed Shahul, Fahaheel AlWatanieh Indian Private School (DPS), Kuwait (1st place), Nivedha Mayiluanan, Private International English School Abu Dhabi, UAE (2nd place) and Parthiv Varma, Al Saad Indian School Al Ain, UAE (3rd place).
In her speech Newman spoke on the importance of spelling and words, and the inspiring words by the guest of honor Dr Yadav. The prominent guests of the day were presented with mementos by Menon as tokens of love and respect from the Bhavans fraternity.
The vote of thanks was proposed by Prasad, Senior Faculty (Department of English). The Indian National Anthem drawing the spirit and respect in the heart of the true patriots drew the curtain down on the 2018 Bhavan’s GCC Spell Bee Championship paving way for the mega event to attain a legendary status in the years to come.