Yesterday Varun Mahadevan, the 13-year-old geography king of California, came in third in the National Geographic Bee. (The Fremont Argus has a report.) Afterward, he told KQED's Paul Lancour that the toughest question he received, and one he got wrong, was the identification based on a photograph of a lake north of Lake Superior. The answer was Lake Nipigon.
Another one Varun, who is from Hayward and goes to Fremont's Prince of Peace Christian School, got wrong: What landlocked country borders Iran and Tajikistan?
Not necessarily the attributes you think of these days when you call to mind the correct answer: Afghanistan.
"I was under lots of pressure and wasn't thinking properly, I guess," Varun said. "And I was thinking that time was running out, so I entered Turkmenistan."
But overall Varun was satisfied with his showing in the contest, which netted him a $10,000 college scholarship. "Third place is pretty good actually. At first I was very pressured, then I found a breakthrough and I did well."