(Image source from: Australia's new spelling champion is Indian-origin boy})

A nine-year-old Indian-origin boy Anirudh Kathirvel is new spelling champion of Australia. He won 50,000 dollars education scholarship at the 'The Great Australian Spelling Bee' competition. Additionally, the Melbourne-born boy Kathirvel won goods worth 10,000 dollars for his school on Tuesday.

Anirudh Kathirvel, who was born to a Tamilian couple Prithiviraj and Sujatha, who did not believe his luck asked his fellow spellers to pinch him. The spelling champion said, "I need to rub my eyes and see if this is a dream."

"Nope.Nope.Nope.Real. I can't describe it. It's like the best day of my life," he added. 'euouae' is Anirudh’s favorite word to spell. He said that he like the structure of the word that is the longest word with consecutive vowels.

He said, "Some of the other words I like to spell are feuilleton, cephalalgia, ombrophobous."

Prithiviraj and Sujatha migrated from Tamil Nadu to Australia16 years back. Anirudh said he loves to watch Indian movies.

Anirudh said, "I started reading from the age of two and slowly my reading passion evolved into my love for words. My parents encouraged and helped me to build up on my spelling."

"My first spelling competition was when I was in grade 1. But my first year in the spelling competition was challenging. Gradually my confidence increased and I was pushing my spelling abilities to its limits. That's how my spelling journey has begun," he added.

-Sumana