Torsha Sarkar at The Park. Picture by Amit Datta

“Ei shomoye Kalighat jawata toh shabhabik (At this time, going to Kalighat is but natural),” was Torsha Sarkar’s explanation for landing up an hour late for the media interaction at The Park on Tuesday afternoon. One of the last three standing in season 4 of the music reality show Indian Idol, the 23-year-old from Asansol is sure praying hard — and it’s not only at Kalighat.

“I have been very sincere in my singing and honest in each and every performance that I have put up. It’s been a long and fulfilling journey and I hope the audience recognises that when the winner is announced on March 1,” said Torsha, pooped but pretty in a yellow salwar kameez. And it sure has been a long journey for the Lata Mangeshkar fan who was studying biotechnology in Bangalore, but found herself at the Indian Idol auditions one July day last year.

“I had always nurtured the dream of singing in front of a packed audience and when Indian Idol came along I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity for anything,” she smiles shyly.

Topping the favourites list of almost every judge on the Sony show — “Anu Malikji has been a pillar of support and encouragement from day one and Sonali ma’am (Bendre) has said that for her I am already the winner” — Torsha has gone from strength to strength on Indian Idol.

Her favourite moment on the show? “Every moment that I have been up there on the stage has been special, but of course the most memorable ones were the episodes when I got a green light (green light equals a thumbs up) from all the four judges,” she smiles.

The journey has been a dream one so far — besides rubbing shoulders with a host of Bollywood stars from Bipasha Basu to Deepika Padukone, Torsha recently met Sourav Ganguly at Sourav’s,the restaurant on Park Street. “He was very encouraging and told me to pursue my dreams,” she says, her eyes shining.

Torsha has to contend with tough competition in the form of the season’s two most popular contestants — Kapil Thapa of Dehradun and Sourabhee Debbarma from Tripura.

“The support from the Northeast for contestants from that region is huge, something that the rest of us have struggled to keep up with throughout the show,” she rues, wryly.

So while Sourabhee and Kapil have never found themselves in the danger zone, not many weeks have passed without audiences seeing a weeping Torsha in the bottom two. “I have a lot of experience when it comes to being the one on the verge of being thrown out of the contest!” laughs the aspiring playback singer and actress, all the time keeping her fingers crossed for March 1.