The hunt for Bangalore’s best speller came to a buzzing end on Sunday evening at the Jyothi Nivas Auditorium where the Explocity 1^st Annual Spelling Bee took place.

The winner, Mythili Nair, from National Public School won the challenge with four points. In second position was Vishesh Guru from Purnapragna School was only a point behind.

Speaking to Explocity, Nair says that she loved being a part of the event. When asked what the toughest word in the entire challenge was for her, she simply said, “I don’t remember.”

The event began on Sunday morning. But it being a Sunday did not stop the spellers from pouring in. Varun Rajagopalan from Explocity, tells us that the kids had started assembling at 7:30 am. The registration for the event only began at 9:00 am.

The students were accompanied by their parents and siblings, who came not only to support them but also to witness the first Spelling Bee event in Bangalore, and possibly India. Students came from schools across the city. These included Bishop Cottons, St Xavier’s, St Pauls, National Public School, Presidency School, Stonehill International School, Canadian International School and Good Shepherd, to name a few.

Radio Indigo’s Melodee Austin and Sriram Sullia from Radio Indigo took to the stage to play host. Given their profession, keeping the banter going was hardly a feat for them. Sullia even walked up to parents and students in the audience every now and then to keep them engaged.

The panel members of the Bee were TP Vasanth, managing trustee at Primus Public School; Raj Ayyar, currently a visiting guest faculty member at St. Joseph’s College of Business Administration and Christ University; Preethi Menon, faculty at Stonehill and Radha Thomas, musician, author, writer and Explocity’s Executive VP.

The first half of the contest was a voting machine round where students participated in batches. Five batches took turns at the voting machines. Every batch was given a set of 15 words - five easy, five medium and five hard – with four options each. Students were to vote for the right spelling option.

The top 26 students with the highest points moved on to the quarter finals. Quarterfinalists were asked to spell three words each. Only one contestant, Reshma from National Public School, was able to spell all three correctly. The top 10 were chosen from these to go on to the semi-final round where each had to spell five words. With only five boys and 19 girls in the quarterfinals, the girls clearly dominated the participant quotient. “The girls are beating the boys,” noticed Thomas.

The final round was a face-off between Nair and Guru. The competition was neck and neck, but Nair finally took the trophy home, declaring Thomas right.

All 26 participants received a certificate of participation as well as a goody bag from Embassy, who were the title sponsors. Further, the top eight participants received trophies. But the crowning moment was for 1^st runner up Vishesh Guru and of course Mythili Nair who received the coveted trophy and title of Bangalore’s best speller.

To view more pictures of the Explocity 1st Annual Spelling Bee 2013, visit the Bangalore Spelling Bee Facebook page.