Title holder: Shrinidhi won the Child Genius final after beating Connor aged nine and 'human dictionary' Ben
Shrinidhi’s achievement is all the more impressive when you consider that her first language is not even English, but Tamil, which she still speaks with her family at home, and she came to live in the UK from India only three years ago.
But the supreme irony is that of all the children in the competition, Shrinidhi appeared to be the least pushed by her parents, Suja and Raman. Indeed, the mild-mannered Indian couple looked like pussy cats compared to other tiger mothers in the show.
Take chess prodigy and fellow contestant Josh Altman, nine, who sat meekly as his mother told him he needed 50,000 practice hours to become a chess grandmaster by the age of 13.
He later writhed in discomfort as she told him to keep going to the next round, despite the fact he had hardly scored a point and complained to her that he felt ill?
Supreme Tiger of all was Sarah Gyles, 34, mother of nine-year-old Connor who announced without a shred of embarrassment: ‘Of course, I want him to do well. I want to show off. Is that bad?’ And: ‘I want to go around and say: “Look how clever my son is. Aren’t I great?” ’
'Shrinidhi is not driven by achievement. She doesn’t work to targets. She simply follows what interests her'
Shrinidhi, however, seemed to trundle through the competition in her own sweet way. Of all the children who appeared in the series, Shrinidhi, the current Under-12 World Scrabble Champion, seemed the most naturally gifted and the most rightful winner.
Compared to Josh, Shrinidhi plays about an hour a week to retain her Scrabble title.
She would love to spend more time playing it online, but finds that other competitors get abusive and accuse her of cheating if she gets more than three bonus words in a row.
Blessed with a brain that is an amazing magnet for words, even before Child Genius came along Shrinidhi’s favourite book was her bumper edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.
As she worked her way through the literary classics, she looked up the words that interested her and jotted them down on her iPad.
Perhaps after all this hot-housing, this then was the secret. While other youngsters faltered in tears with nerve-induced nausea and anxiety attacks, Shrinidhi was under less pressure and so managed to keep her head. Yet as charming as Shrinidhi is, dressed today in her too-small dungaree dress, it’s hard not to wonder if her gifts come at the expense of other areas of her development.
She is, to be blunt, sweetly unaware. Her confession that she loves to sniff and even lick the books she describes as her ‘friends’ will go down as one of the oddest remarks on a reality TV show.
And mother Suja, 36, a stay-at-home mother who also has a three-year-old son Sachin, is honest enough to admit that while her daughter is far ahead in some areas, she lags behind in others.
‘Where Shrinidhi is lacking is that she is not street-smart. She is a bit innocent for her age. It’s difficult for her to attach herself to a group, because her interests are on a different plane.