Will My Candidiate win this time?

It was the Indian Idol (first one), when the series started. I supported Amit Sana. Cause according to me, he sang better than Abhijeet Sawant. And Amit lost.

Then I happened to support Karunya from the very first time I saw him, in his piano round. Because generally I don't get to see all these shows in the hostels. I find wherever its possible to find them, though. The guy reached the finals. But lost there to some Sandeep Acharya who hasn't probably sung a single song in a movie.

Then there were two shows going parallel. In fact three, of which, the two ended earlier. The two were Sa Re Ga Ma Pa and the Indian Idol 3. I loved Saregamapa and was a Big Fan of Amanat since the day I heard his Mitwaa, though I had liked many of his songs earlier also. But Mitwaa he sang had a real substance in it. It was one song that I found better than the original, and surprisingly for me, Farha Khan also said the same. Though I am not a fan of hers, when she said so, I liked it of course.

But as it goes, Amanat also lost.

And on the other end, there was a winner called Prashant in the Indian Idol 3, the guy I expected to be out in the second round. Just because at that time he was not at all doing what others were doing, prepare. The guy was simply tensed, having problems with his partner.

Emon, the guy I hoped would be out soon, as all my favorites were, was out as the 2nd runner up.

Now starts the story of the Voice of India. I never used to watch the show, as I used to see Saregamapa even if I got some chance to find TV in the hostel. But one day, when I was in Bangalore at my cousin's home, while surfing channels, I just liked a Sardar guy singing a song beautifully. I simply loved the way he sang. I don't remember the song, but from that time I kept some track of the VoI too, though I lost track more than I kept it.

Finally, it was the time of final when I came to know that the Sardar guy, Ishmeet, was in the finals. I was happy that I wasn't wrong in thinking the guy was great. Then I found the other guy in the finals was Harshit.

Oops! Harshit!!

Well, I liked the way he sang, but not that much. Most of the times Harshit sang and I saw, I felt he took some time to pick up the soul of the song, noticed for the first time in Hare Krishna Hare Raam. And then, he looked playing tricks at times. Eventually, I didn't like the guy and kept on to Ishmeet only, as he has been singing really good since the first day I thought.

And then, yesterday I saw the current results, before every break, which came as:

South zone: Harshit 73%, Ishmeet 27%,
West zone: Harshit 70+, Ishmeet 20+, (forgot exact figures)
East zone: Harshit 70%, Ishmeet 30%,

So after three breaks, I was sure my candidate is going to lose again, until I found the power of north. The North zone figures said, Harshit 40% and Ishmeet 60%. Adding up to a final figure of 49% for Harshit and 51% for Ishmeet.

First of all, it was surprising to see that North's difference of 20% was able to cover up all the 40+ %age difference of the rest of India.

Secondly, it will be surprising if a candidate I support wins.

I hope, this time.....

Be-Sure-Gama

This is my big big world. And here is my experience of the be-sure-gama which took place last Sunday, September 9th.

It was a singing competition, organised by some of my friends, on the tracks of sa re ga ma pa which is being aired on the Zee TV nowadays. The major difference being that we had only besuras and were determined not to have any person with any experience in singing. I was the only one who had once sung on the stage and mind it, I wasn't a contestant. I was a judge.

Well, the plans boasted of a great competition and it turned out to be the same, when the final round came, cause the contestants were looking pretty tensed by the time.

In all we had 7 contestants one of which was our host, Ambuj. The other 6 contestants were Anuj, Ashaf, Devanshu, DD, Manohar, and Sandeep. The 3 judges were Abhishek, Aritra and me, Harshit. The contest had three rounds. In the first round, 2 contestants, Sandeep and Ashaf were eliminated. In the second round, again 2 contestants, Ambuj and DD got eliminated. In the final round, we had 3 contestants, among which, one, Manohar was really an unexpected candidate who had sung an exceptionally well (at our level) 'suno na suno na sunlo na' and surprised nearly all by reaching the finals.

Thus, in the finals, we had three contestants, Anuj, Devanshu, and Manohar. Coincidentally, these three were the people who were the hosts too. In the last round, judges wanted the contestants to sing the types they had not touched yet. So, Devanshu, who had sung a high pitched Rabba(Musafir) and I love u o sayyoni (Aap ka Suroor) was made to sing a lighter 'Kuch saal pehle' from Yaadein. Anuj, having sung two light numbers took 'O Sathi re' (Muqaddar ka Sikandar). And Manohar chose a difficult, 'Tu hi meri Shab hai'.

The end turned out to be pretty tough and the final round ended with a difference of just one mark between the winner and the runner up while there were 3 judges difference of less than half mark per judge!!) Telling us how tough a competition was it. The final winner was Anuj.

After all the contestants, judges were asked to give performances. Aritra presented a sweet 'Raat Kali ek khwaab mein aayi' and won hearts. Abhishek went a step ahead by presenting his own beautiful Ghazal. I sang 'Bin tere kya hai jeena' from 'Woh Lamhe' to end the program.

And now, all said and done, I m thinking that if here, where we have hardly any interest in winning and cannot think of taking music seriously, the environment gets this serious, what might be happening at the national level talent-hunt programs such as Indian Idol and Sa re ga ma pa??