When the lights dim after Bee Week and the trophy goes back on a shelf, what happens next? For many Indian-American spelling-bee champions the answer is not a single script. Some went to medicine, others to tech or finance, a few into unexpected arenas like professional poker or start-ups, and many into community service and…
Across continents, certain communities keep producing world-class talent in very specific arenas: Indian-American children dominate U.S. spelling bees, Jamaican sprinters own the 100-meter dash, Chinese students top international math Olympiads, and Russian players continue to shine in chess. It’s tempting to chalk these achievements up to “natural talent” or DNA, but a closer look reveals…
Introduction — a myth worth correcting If you’ve caught highlights from recent Scripps National Spelling Bees, one fact may have jumped out: children from Indian immigrant backgrounds win at remarkably high rates. That pattern has led to lots of speculation — including a persistent but misleading idea that success is somehow genetic. The reality is…
How Indian Immigrant Families Built a Spelling Empire Audience: NRI parents in the USA, Europe, and elsewhere who want to understand how a community turned aspiration into repeated success—and what lessons (and cautions) parents can take away. Introduction — a surprising American storyIf you’ve watched recent clips from the Scripps National Spelling Bee, you’ve probably…
Across living rooms and after-school centers worldwide, children sit with rows of wooden beads, flicking them back and forth in a blur of motion.Parents often notice something remarkable: after a few months of abacus training, their children can hear a long string of numbers once and repeat it perfectly. Some can even calculate faster than…
When parents sign up their children for abacus classes, they often hear impressive promises: lightning-fast calculation, sharper concentration, maybe even a “photographic memory.”The image is enticing—a child who can look at a page of numbers once and recite every digit, or who never forgets a lesson or a face.But is that really what abacus training…
A Familiar Worry for Parents “Numbers just aren’t my thing.”Many adults remember saying (or hearing) that phrase in school, and plenty of parents quietly fear their child will echo it. The good news? Math confidence is not innate; it’s built.And one surprisingly powerful ally in that journey is an ancient tool with modern relevance—the abacus….
A Familiar Scene When Meera first signed up her 7-year-old for an abacus class in Hyderabad, a chorus of doubts quickly followed.“Why bother when every phone has a calculator?”“Isn’t that just a fancy way to count beads?”Three months later, Meera’s son could add three-digit numbers in his head faster than most adults could punch them…
Two Mornings, Two WorldsIt’s 7:30 a.m. in Osaka. Third-grader Yuto sits in a bright classroom, a soroban (Japanese abacus) already on his desk. The day begins with a 10-minute mental-math warm-up before regular lessons.Meanwhile in Hyderabad, eight-year-old Sahana rushes to an after-school abacus class once a week—if traffic and homework allow. Both children are curious…
A Scene from Tomorrow’s Living RoomEight-year-old Aarav adjusts a lightweight headset. On the coffee table sits a classic wooden abacus, but in his ears he hears a cheerful AI coach counting beats. On the screen, animated beads glide across a digital frame, tracking every move. Aarav’s parents watch, amazed that a 500-year-old tool and cutting-edge…
