It was almost as if Sourav Ganguly, the ‘Prince of Kolkata’, had made an unprecedented comeback to the Indian cricket team… the atmosphere was reminiscent of Durga Puja celebrations in West Bengal… but nothing of this sort was ‘The Reason’ behind the deafening uproar in the streets of Kolkata…

Infact it was a 15-year old teenager from Kolkata which had sparkled off such grandiloquent festivities- “Sanchita Bhattacharya”, a name unknown to almost everyone in India about 4 months ago, was now the toast of the nation in general, & Kolkata in particular. Well this was because she was just crowned “LITTLE CHAMP” by the Don- Shahrukh Khan himself in an enthralling grand finale in Mumbai itself.

The event started by ZEE TV aimed to find the young singing sensation of India among thousands of participants. It provided the right platform for all budding little ‘Kishore Kumar’s’ & ‘Lata Mangeshkar’s’ of India to showcase their talent on the big stage. After many rounds of screening in different districts all over the country, finally 10 lucky little champs were selected for the final rounds. The judges, famously known as the ‘Terrific Trio’, were Abhijit,Alka Yagnik & Bappi Da. And ‘Shaan’ was the one who superbly anchored the show all along.

From these 10, the top three who made to the grand finale were besides Sanchita: Diwakar Sharma from Delhi & Sameer Mohammad from Mumbai. And though all three were really very good. Still the main contest was between the two most consistent performers of the show- “Sanchita vs Sameer”! But the fact that votes from people all over India were to be considered in final evaluation of results made the contest a lot closer than expected. As Diwakar being blind had an undue advantage of sympathy factor along with him, so much so that until the ending stages of voting he was at the top position, only to be overtaken by Sanchita during the dying moments of a nail-biting encounter indeed.

But it once again put a huge ??? mark over the credibility of champions emerging as a result of these voting systems. And this indeed is a serious debate. There are many examples which reaffirm this fact time and again that its often not the winners of this show who deserve the title but the runners-up instead!!!

Be it Abhijit Sawant’s victory over Amit Sana in “Indian Idol 1”, Sunil Pal’s victory over Raju Srivastav in “Laughter Challenge 1”, Sandeep Acharya’s victory over Karunya in “Indian Idol 2” or the most recent & most debatable “Rauf Lala” of Pakistan emerging victorious over his much fancied rivals in “Laughter Challenge 2”, the list is endless…

So the fact is that this much fashionable “voting system” only serves the hosts to expand their bank balance by hefty amounts. Besides these, they not only undermine the quality of such contests but are also a source of a great deal of frustration for all deserving participants who have worked really hard to reach this far. Who is to blame: “Public or Media”??? is anybody’s guess..

But for now lets put all these topics on the back-burner & extend our heartiest congratulations to the winner… & a deserving winner too… finally!!!

Hats Off to the Little Champ, the lovely & melodious Sanchita… to put it in Shaan’s words “Just Amazing” little champs!!!

Now whether She would be able to fulfill the huge aspirations that are a part & parcel, which come along the “champions” tag & whether she would be able to escalate the same heights as that of the great “Lata Mangeshkar”, only time will tell…

So till then as Shaan would say it again lets…

HOLD TIME!!!