Catalina Foothills senior publishes geography Q&A book

Dinner-table conversations in the Aradhyula household often involve geography.

For example, the chuchitos a colleague sent home with the father inspired the whole family to research the food’s origin. Chuchitos are like tamales, but from Guatemala and wrapped in banana leaves instead of corn husks, they learned.

A long drive out of town can involve games of naming countries that share borders.

“It’s always been something that we love,” said Sumhith Aradhyula, a Catalina Foothills High School senior.

Geography has been a natural part of the teen’s life for so long that he decided to make a book about it. His collection of geography questions-and-answers, “Be a Geo Bee,” was self-published early November.

The book contains more than 1,500 questions and answers in 31 chapters to help aspiring geography bees. Here’s one:

“Dutch is the most widely spoken language in what small South American country?”

Suriname, of course.

Another, from the America chapter: “Name the desert in southern Arizona that shares its name with a Mexican state.”

That’s one Tucsonans should be able to answer: the Sonoran Desert.

Aradhyula, 17, was a bee himself — he was second in the state for the National Geographic Society geography bee, during which he missed only one question, and first in the state in the International Geography Olympiad challenge. He also started the geography club at his school.

“It’s a nerdy passion,” he said.

Taking facts that he’d learn through reading articles from National Geographic and other sources and converting them into questions helped him memorize the facts more easily and prepare for geography bees, Aradhyula said.

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He began compiling questions in seventh grade, but only thought to make a book out of them in recent years, when he realized that he had more than 1,000 questions.

When he proposed the idea to his father, Satheesh Aradhyula said, “Why not?”

“I was very happy and surprised,” Satheesh Aradhyula said.

Sumhith recruited an editor, Nancy Bannister, a professor at the University of Arizona, to review his work.

“I think it’s an amazing undertaking,” Bannister said. “He’s got some fascinating questions in here and I learned a heck of a lot.”

Geography is “more than just random facts compiling,” Sumhith said.

“For me, understanding of geography is a way to better understand many of the phenomena going on in the world,” he said.

But the teen’s time isn’t monopolized by all things geography. He also keeps busy playing chess, performing Indian classical music and participating in speech and debate.

“Time is always hard to find,” he said. “But it’s doable. There’s lost sleep sometimes.”

He does not plan to study geography in college, he said. “I like lots of different subjects.”

No matter what field he chooses, he hopes geography will be a part of his life.

“Geography is a passion,” he said. “I really love it.”