Atlanta boy takes 2nd place in Geographic Bee

ATLANTA: Nilai Sarda is a world-traveled 11-year-old who is crazy about geography. "I created a profile of every country in the world — it's 1,000 pages on my computer at least, and I read through it and always try to add to it," he told India-West on May 31 from his home in Atlanta.
His obsession has paid off: Sarda came in at second place at the National Geographic Bee in Washington, D.C., on May 25. He will take home a $15,000 college scholarship.
The first place winner was Tine Valenic of Colleyville, Texas, who won a $25,000 scholarship and a trip to the Galapagos Islands.
"I was a little nervous going into the competition, but once people started missing questions, I started to focus. 'Eyes on the prize!'" he laughed.
An only child, Sarda was born in Mumbai and is now a student at the private Westminster School in Atlanta, where he will attend the eighth grade next fall. The well-spoken and confident Sarda is a member of his school's Math Counts, debate and Quiz Bowl teams, and is a frequent and successful competitor at the North South Foundation geography bees which benefit projects in India.
Sarda and Valenic, the two finalists in the competition, were asked the same five questions, and the one with the most correct answers was declared the winner.
Sarda answered three questions correctly, but flubbed the fourth question: "Identify the South American country where the volcano Tungurahua is" ( Ecuador). His incorrect response was Peru.
Sarda offered up advice to students hoping to ace their own schools' geography bees: don't discount good old rote memorization at the beginning; it will get easier.
"At first, just try to study the capitals and major cities — you can move on to the cultural and economic aspects of geography from there," he told India-West. "Learn by memorizing at first, and then you can expand your field of study.
"As you diversify, you will start to see a connection between different regions," he said — such as why some countries grow certain crops, and others migrate. You will start to see patterns."
A preliminary round May 24 narrowed the field from 54 contestants to 10; the final round featuring the 10 finalists will be aired over four nights beginning June 13 at 6:30 p.m. on the National Geographic Channel.
One other Indian American figured among the finalists: Karthik Karnik, 13, a seventh grader at King Philip Middle School in Norfolk, Mass., finished in fifth place. Karnik is the son of Rathna and Vishwanath Karnik of Plainville, Mass., and told organizers he has had a passion for geography since attending the fifth grade. At least 11 Indian American students placed first in state finals to advance to the Washington, D.C., finals (I-W, April 15).
"Over one-fifth of the [contestants] were Indian," Sarda noted. "I don't know why that is — maybe there is just more focus on academic achievement" in the community, he said. Sarda spends at least 45 minutes to an hour each day during the week, and two to three hours over the weekend preparing for competitions. There is also an element of luck: Sarda got three questions about India.
Asked about his favorite country to learn about, Sarda said it definitely wasn't India. "It's too large, too diverse," he said. Instead, it's Nauru, a tiny speck on the map northeast of Australia. The country is just 8 square miles and is the world's smallest republic.
"It doesn't even have a capital. The parliament meets in the president's house!" said Sarda.