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Mouctika Paluri, a 12-year-old who attends Creek Valley Middle School in Carrollton, made the national finals two years ago as a representative of Michigan, she finished second in Dallas County last year, and, three years ago, she finished sixth in the nation in a contest for spellers of Indian background.
In fact, when she came to the U.S. from Singapore at age 5 and was tested for academic placement at school, Mouctika even challenged her teachers to increase the difficulty of the spelling test.
"The teacher asked her to spell words like duck and cat ," said Ram Paluri, Mouctika’s father. "She told the teacher she would rather spell interesting words."
Mouctika, who is sponsored by The Dallas Morning News in the national contest that starts today in Washington, says she was inspired to try for the national spelling title when she saw televised coverage of the championship in 2004.
"I thought it would be really cool if I could win, so I started studying," she said.
But in 2006, her performance on the written, multiple-choice portion of the testing meant Mouctika was eliminated before the second round. However, she did get to stand on the stage and spell one word in front of the audience, and she got it right.
"There were so many lights and people, it was kind of nerve-racking," she said. "It’s fun up there."
This time around, she’s better prepared, said Mr. Paluri, noting that his daughter had to go through five rounds of competition to make the national bee. And Mouctika’s enthusiasm for spelling has rubbed off so much that her 3-year-old brother, trained by their mother, is getting interested, too.
Mouctika’s ambitions are fairly modest this year – she hopes to at least make it to the nationally televised final round Friday.

dallasnews.com

“Mrs. Spelling, your purse is making the locker it’s in shake and vibrate.”
I was being wheeled into yet another elbow surgery, so I was sure I was hallucinating.
“Look, Mrs. Spelling, your daughter is the next guest,” a nurse in the pre-op area seemed to say a few seconds later, pointing at a monitor in the hallway.
Ah, that explained why my purse was shaking the locker. Whenever Tori was on TV, I got a flood of phone calls. I wanted more pre-op drugs. My daughter’s book had just come out, and I had been barraged with phone calls, emails, letters and strangers in restaurants reporting what she was saying. Now I was imagining that even the hospital medical staff was talking about the book.
“Hi, Candy,” my surgeon said. “Just watched Tori. She said you and she have a good and non-confrontational relationship.”
“Where’s the anesthesiologist?” I asked. “Something is wrong with the anesthetic. It’s not working.”
I thought I heard someone say something about why Tori thought she could get an inheritance when her mother was still alive. “Kids don’t get inheritances until both parents pass, and the mother looks quite healthy,” one of the operating room experts declared to another.
More drugs. More drugs.
I saw lights, heard muffled voices, a nurse came over, and someone said the surgery was over. I fell back asleep and was moved to my room.
“Mrs. Spelling, look. Isn’t that your daughter on television?” a disembodied voice asked.
Sure enough. I opened my eyes, and there was Tori on another talk show.
“My mother is a great grandmother,” I think she said. “Our relationship is fine.”
I knew that. I had just seen my grandson, and we were already becoming great buddies. I was excited that Tori is pregnant again, and I’d be a grandmother of two soon.

huffingtonpost.com