North East takes Centerstage

In December,1995 as a 13-year old I had attended a "National Integration Camp"
in Itarana,Alwar as an NCC cadet. It witnessed cadets from almost 20 states,
IIRC. There the best of the singers belonged to Darjeeling.

And now they have come to the fore.

Never before in the history of Indian media has North-East been so mainstream.
In the currently ongoing Indian Idol 3, 3 out of final 6 contestants are from the
North-East. Amit Paul from Shillong, Prashant Tamang from Kolkata and of
Nepalese origin and to top the list Meiyang Chang from Dhanbad but more
importantly of Chinese origin.

While Chang is being described as the "cutest" contestant, it is Tamang who
has generated the maximum buzz, being the only one to have a Wikipedia
entry dedicated to him.

Personally I think Tamang/Amit are the best singers of the lot,
but Indian Idol is not simply a singing competition anyway. It's
more of a performance event.

On a different note I think this edition of Indian Idol is a big leap forward
in truly mingling North East with rest of the India.