The fate of speller Surjo Bandyopadhyay rested on Jacques Bailly’s lips.
“May I please have all the information on this word that you can give me?” asked 14-year-old Surjo, of Lusby, the last student from Maryland standing in the semifinal round at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Bailly told him that the word is German, meaning a type of musical instrument. When Surjo, an eighth-grader at Southern Middle School, asked whether it is derived from “nacht” — meaning “night” — Bailly said no. And back and forth they went on the pronunciation until Maryland’s last candidate said it correctly. But the spelling was off.
“N-A-C-H-S-C-H-L-A-G,” Bailly pronounced. Surjo was out, but he laughed it off while muttering “fail.”
In the early stages of the competition, Surjo became a crowd favorite. People laughed as he twisted his face, scratched his chin and pumped his fists when he spelled words correctly. For the past year, he’d been furiously memorizing words in the dictionary — from 4:30 to 6:30 a.m., and then for five hours after school.
“I don’t feel like I lost,” he said. “I did really well. It’s been a great learning tool, and I’ve gained so much knowledge.”
Late Thursday, Sukanya Roy, 14, of Abington Heights Middle School in Pennsylvania, won the contest by spelling cymotrichous, which means “having wavy hair.”
“It’s amazing,’’ she said. “It’s beyond words.”
The Scripps spelling bee is said to be the nation’s oldest academic competition. But with 275 kids in the contest this year, it’s still growing. The bee moved this year from the District to the Gaylord National Resort Hotel and Convention Center in Prince George’s County to accommodate 2,000 spectators, an 80 percent increase from last year. An event that used to cater only to families is now selling $40 tickets for logophiles so they can see kids recite some of the most esoteric words in the English language.
Shortly before 10 p.m., only 10 spellers remained. Their ranks did not include Samuel Estep, a 13-year-old home-schooler from Berryville who was the final bee survivor from Virginia, a feeling he could only describe as “amazing.”
Estep lasted one round in the finals, misspelling “bondieuserie,” a shoddy piece of religious art. After his elimination, Estep was flanked by his parents, George and Kimberly. They provided a comfort they’d given before — his 18-year-old sister, Marissa, got to the national championship in 2004 and 2006.
His elimination continued the drought for winners from the Washington area. In the 85 spelling bees since 1925 (a break was taken during World War II), there has never been a winner from Maryland or the District. Two, Amanda Goad from Richmond in 1992 and Daniel Greenblatt from Leesburg in 1984, have come from Virginia.
Despite the glitz of the bee nowadays, the core values that draw millions to watch the event on ESPN are the same. The cute nervousness that a kid shows as he approaches the microphone. The anticipation of hearing a word. The interaction with the omniscient pronouncer, whose words are like a balm.
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