Inter-House Spelling Contest, 2014 at CHSS.

It all started off most probably, with the essay contest organised by the RSPN. We received three entries over all and both Ms. Chencho and I decided to go for Ashik’s mainly because of his lucid language and clarity of thoughts, in preference to Damber’s, who came out the second best inspite of having written a well laid-out essay. We sent Ashik’s essay as only one essay was to be selected from each school and he made us all very proud by winning the second prize in the nation-wide contest.

I will never forget the look on Damber’s face when I was explaining the positives and the negatives of both their essays to them later on. Damber accepted our decision to send Ashik’s essay with the spirit and gracefulness of a true champion. And they say true champions never underestimate their competitors, believe in hard work and prove their mettle when the going gets tough,

A few weeks back, after conducting the spelling test in standard – XA, one thing was clear to me again. Our students do not take their spelling seriously. Having realized the importance of making our students take their spelling rituistically seriously, I talked to Ms. Palden and Ms. Chencho first and then requested our Principal Sir to consent to the Inter-House Debate, which was scheduled to be held today, being put off till September and having the Inter-Class Spelling Contest instead, for the benefit of the students.

Having obtained his permission, Ms. Chencho and I did not waste any more time in putting our heads together to frame the rules of the contest. The class teachers were asked to select the participants from their respective classes as per one of the rules. I busied myself with the conduction of the spelling test in my class and informed my students beforehand. They were to spell 20 words in their notebooks in 10 minutes. Through peer-corrections, they were to help me select the best speller from my class. There were three in the fray after the test, Ms. Chhimi Lhamo, Mr. Yang Tshering Sherpa and Mr. Gopal Subba, all exceptionally talented students in their own rights.

Naturally, we had to go for a second test and I informed them that it would be held at the start of the next class, next day. The three contestants were to spell out 10 words in 5 minutes and the winner would represent our class in the Inter-Class Spelling Contest, 2014. I also informed them, after a second thought, that if they wanted to try out their luck for a second time they could participate in the test next day, but their papers were not to be evaluated by me unless all the three students selected for the second test, fared miserably and one of the rest performed brilliantly at the same time.

And Damber showed the mettle he is made of the second time around as Chhimi, Yang and Gopal all failed to live up to the mark. After I had checked his paper, I had no doubt in my mind that he was the one working very hard and it was bound to pay off. So I informed the class of my intention of letting Damber represent the class for the contest. I also requested the class, all 43 of them, to help Damber prepare for the contest by finding at least 5 difficult-to-spell  words each and test his spelling prowess in the next few days. The whole class responded superbly and last Wednesday, when I was on my way to XI block, I heard Gopal Subba saying: “Sir, Damber has been chosen well. He is the best in spelling in our class ….”

Yesterday, despite it being India’s 67^th anniversary of The Independence Day, was not a favorable day for me and I decided to stay away from school. But thanks to Ms. Chencho, who has been working tirelessly for the Spelling Contest, everything fell into place by the time the last few students had made their way up at the back of the last row of students in the MPH.

After familiarizing the students with the rules of the contest once more, the Spell Master (Mistress?)  took off with the Warm-Up round. In that round the participants were asked to spell one word with the outcome having nothing to do with their moving on to the next round. In the second round, the contestants were to spell out 3 words in one and half minutes. Though most of the participants got eliminated in this round, Dambar stayed in contention along with five other students. During his turn, he fumbled once, looked tensed up and messed up with the pieces of papers. His pen slipped off his hand and I could hear the students sitting at the back chuckling. It was around at this time that I had a haunch that he was going to be the winner. I do not know it for sure and I am never going to ask him either, but I felt that I could hear him mutter between his teeth: “You fellas up there can laugh as much as you can, but I will have the last laugh …”

There were six participants left in the third and penultimate round. In this round, each surviving contestant was to rearrange a jumbled word in 1 minute’s time. This is where Dambar kept his cool and nerve intact, and was the only one to come out with the right word. The last contestant was Mr.Tandin Norbu of XI SC’A’, but inspite of having done well in the earlier rounds, he could not get the word within the given time limit. So Damber won the contest hands down. Even then, he was tested in the final and Rapid Fire Round and in 1 minute, he could spell 11 out of the 12 words correctly.

“Now may I have the pleasure of announcing the Super Speller of CHSS for the year 2014 …” and before Ms. Chencho could announce the name of the winner there was a rapturous applause for Dambar, The Champion Speller of Chhukha Higher Secondary School for the Year 2014, and most deservingly so.