Great surprise, two Indian-American kids  were declared joint winners of the 2016 US National Spelling Bee championships. It is the 9th successive year that PIO offspring have won the title of a wordy contest.

Seven of the last 10 finalists were Indian-Americans and was a tougher competition that witnessed longer final rounds.

Jairam Jagadeesh Hathwar (13) from New York and Nihar Saireddy Janga (11) from Texas were declared co-champions of the Scrips National Spelling Bee and awarded them $ 40,000 each in prize money and shared the trophy. There were more than 20 rounds and with tough words such as kjeldahl, guignolet, euchologion, and romyshlennik.

Their winning words, Janga's with a word "gesellschaft" (a type of social relationship). Hathwar's was "feldenkrais" (a method of movement).

"I am just speechless. I can't say anything. I am only in fifth grade," Nihar said with the trophy in his hand as he attributed his success to his mother. "My mom. It's just my mom," he said.

"I'm just speechless," Janga said upon winning. "I can't say anything. I'm only in fifth grade."

The two boys went ahead for more than 20 rounds, the final round last for more than an hour. At the end, the two superstar spellers were named co-champs. It was the third successive year that there have been joint winners.

As it happens every year, the "Desi" dominance in such competitions led to the usual questions: Why are Indian-American kids so good at it? Is it all about rote learning? And what use are such obscure words in everyday life?

Answered from some community, “attributed it to obsessive parenting, while others simply point to the prize money, scholarship, and a shiny resume that comes with winning in a system where college education is becoming increasingly expensive. Most previous winners have done brilliantly in their academic life.”

- Mayuka