Looking at the Stars: Ahmad Bilal Rana of Red Bluff
By Mohammad Ashraf Chaudhry
Pittsburgh, CA
Nestled in a grove of a dozen oak trees, there sits a lonely house, overlooking Highway 5, in a small town of 13 thousand residents, known as Red Bluff, and in that serene house lives this “Spelling Wizard Kid”, Ahmad Bilal Rana. Meeting this Muslim boy was a matter of pure pride, and introducing him to other Muslim kids is an act of moral obligation.
Ahmed Bilal is the only son of Dr Mohammad Akbar Rana, a neurologist, and Tehmina Rana, a housewife. Born in Attock, Pakistan in 1989, and raised in Red Bluff, this young boy has proved that excellence in English language, especially in spellings, is not the monopoly of those whose mother-tongue is English. An urge to win and excel others, accompanied by hard work, has been a perfect recipe which Ahmed followed diligently and relentlessly. The result has been obvious: Ahmed became a celebrity in a town where most people are strangers to each other. The State of California of which Red Bluff is a small town, takes pride that Ahmad is its resident, the town, Red Bluff beams with joy that Ahmad lives there; Vista Middle School, the junior high, where Ahmad studied is miles higher in reputation than any other school because of him.
More than 10 million students nation-wide get involved, first at regional level and finally after having been short-listed, to about 248 finalists, as they prepare to participate in the prestigious Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee contest held in Washington DC. To be among those lucky 248 finalists is in itself a Herculean task. Just to be among one of them means, a free, all expenses-paid, two-day trip to the Annual Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee contest, and numerous parties and tours. Ahmad was one of them last year in its 76th Spelling Bee Contest.
The word, euphoria, which he spelled correctly at the Regional level, qualified him for the National Contest in Washington. Redding Bank of Commerce gave him $500 saving bonds to acknowledge that a star was born.
Last year, in all 251 students had earned the trip to the finals. Ahmad climbed the ladder placidly till he got tied up in the 12th position, and which on its own merit, was a great accomplishment. He was declared the top-speller of the Rockies, and the Record Searchlight, a local newspaper in its editorial of May 31, 2003, called Ahmed, “The Western Champ”. While most students under such stress and tension would wind up in the first few rounds, Ahmad survived in the contest up to round 7, when he finally got tripped up by such a weird word as, “Kurtosis”. He used the letter, “e”, instead of, “u”. He, however, had amazed all by correctly nailing such improbabilities in the spelling world as, “pelmatogram”, “ostreophagous”, and the formidable, “gigot”.
For all Muslim kids of his age, Ahmad is an inspiration. As the Record Searchlight in its editorial puts it aptly, “Young people can learn several valuable lessons from Ahmad’s conduct throughout the spelling bee. First is how hard work pays off. Ahmad studied relentlessly, from his desk at home every night up to the point of reviewing words at the last minute in his Washington hotel room. Setting practical goals was another commendable trait. Ahmad’s goals went from winning the regional bee, to getting the chance to be on the ESPN broadcast and then taking the competition one round at a time”.
Meeting Ahmad Bilal Rana in his new idyllic lonely home was not without impressions. I found him a thorough gentleman. He was very modest and was exceedingly well-mannered and soft-spoken. Instead of frolicking around like other kids, he stayed with us, and remained at the beck and call of his proud father and mother. His aim in life, as he firmly asserted, is to be a physician like his father, and he is all set for that. He is a well-rounded student, who can amaze his listeners with his rhetoric at any school function; who can throw a ball in the basket with remarkable precision; and who can beat his father at the chessboard with a winsome smile. Well done, Ahmad, for a job well done.
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