Arvind Mahankali, 12, finished third and ninth in the National Spelling Bee in the past two years, and has been stepping up his training, in hopes of finishing first this year. He's even trained his little brother, 8-year-old Srinath, to read phonetics so he can help with the drills.
Tovia Smith / NPR
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NPR
Arvind (center) and his younger brother, Srinath, spend hours tediously going through the dictionary.
Tovia Smith is an award-winning NPR National Correspondent based in Boston, who's spent more than three decades covering news around New England and beyond.