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Amit Paul, 24. Shillong
A conversation with Amit means a slight sing-song tone and a near-Italian accent, especially because of his soft Ts. You can also expect the dialogue to be liberally doused with the word 'Naalayak,' as in wastrel, the youngster's term of choice for self-description. He talks of his family business, the garment stores in Shillong and Siliguri, where he sat and idled away the time. "It really didn't matter whether I was at the till or not," he grins. "I didn't make any difference." He thought about heading to Idol last year as well, but 'as I told you, I'm a nalaayak, so I couldn't reach there in time." After school and college, he didn't get down to doing anything constructive. What Amit did do, though, was sing. "I have sung in so many languages: my local language in Shillong, Khasi; then Nepali I learnt from Shillong; Assamese I learnt from Guwahati; then Bodo languages -- there's a tea-garden language called Bagaaniya, a mixture of Bengali, Hindi, Assamese and Oriya, and I've learnt some Telugu songs," he says breathlessly, repeating the word Te-le-gu to himself, as if tripping on its rhythm. "And now by God's grace I am here, and struggling to become the Indian Idol." Playback singing has been a longtime dream for Amit. "I never got the chance to learn music until now. I came to Mumbai lots of times. I have lots of friends, people in the business who can help me. But I knew that until I made my own identity, I couldn't establish myself," he says. "People should know me by my talent." So Paul helped his father with his business for a while, realising that people in Shillong like Western culture and Western songs, while he wanted to sing Indian pop. He talks about his Idol auditions in great detail, reaching late, wearing 'the jeans I wear at home, and thankfully good chappals,' and a 12-hour overnight wait at the venue to make sure he was first in line. "I wasn't. A girl beat me to it. But second wasn't so bad -- for day two of the auditions," he says. Now, everything has changed. "I don't know how Shillong is right now. My family and friends are so excited. My posters are all over! T-shirts, pamphlets, bumper stickers!""When I was in Mumbai last time, when I'd go to the big malls, nobody noticed me, nobody gave me a second glance. Now, they yell wow," he cries. "I'm signing autographs!"
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