Geocashing
11-year-old Akshay Rajagopal from Nebraska just won $25K in the National Geographic Bee, correctly answering ‘Bolivia’ in a contest hosted by Alex Trebek of Jeopardy:
Not only did 11-year-old Akshay Rajagopal know that Cochabamba was a city in Bolivia, he also didn’t stumble when National Geographic Bee host Alex Trebek referred to it as the South American nation’s third-largest conurbation (a large, densely populated urban area)… Akshay answered questions that included the western-most Asian national capital (Ankara in Turkey), the country where Makossa is a popular type of music (Cameroon) and the location of Tillya Tepe (it’s in Afghanistan.)… “He’s been interested in geography since he was 5,” said Akshay’s mother, Suchitra… [Link]
Rajagopal isn’t just smart, he’s quite a looker. Beta, you make nerdgrrl hearts go pitter-patter. Play this right and your marriage could be discussed this very year.
But not arranged. That would be… illegal.
on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008, 8:21 am in Humor, News › 
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If I were 10, I’d be Rajagopal’s gopi anytime. Sho shweetoo…
Worth noting also, that Milan Sandhu and Nikhil Desai were in the top 8 nationally, along with Akshay. That would be a notable achievement even if Akshay hadn’t got the top spot.
Also spelling bees are one thing, but Geography bees are another. The ’spelling rules’ don’t work. Guessing has to be very intelligent, lot of domain knowledge is called for. My guessing would have placed ‘Cochabamba’ somewhere in Latin America, but there’s no way I’d have got the country, and I’d have drawn a complete blank on Tillya Tepe and Makossa. I may have got Ankara, but that’s nothing.
Congratulations to Akshay, and Milan and Nikhil!