New Delhi, Aug. 5 -- A love for decoding rare languages and decrypting clues has led a team of four young boys from India to win one gold, one bronze medal, two individual honourable mentions, as well as an honorable mention for the entire team at the 22nd International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL) held from July 20-July 27 in Taipei, Taiwan.

The Indian team was led by Prof. Parameswari Krishnamurthy of the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H). They were accompanied by an observer, Anshul Krishnadas Bhagwat, an undergraduate researcher at IIITH and a past IOL participant himself.

The youngsters in the team included 15-year-old Vaageesan Surendran (from Chennai), 12-year-old Advay Misra (from New Delhi), 18...