(Top) Sonali’s favourite pastime at home is to feed poultry. Also seen are parents Sanyasi and Alpana. Sonali shakes a leg with Shah Rukh Khan at the grand finale of India’s Got Talent last month. Pictures by Bhubaneswarananda Halder

No one slept in Sholoardari on the night of November 24. For that was the night when a pint-sized resident of this nondescript hamlet, in a tiny corner on the India-Bangladesh border, put it on the reality show map.

That was the night when seven-year-old Sonali Majumdar danced her way to a Rs 50-lakh booty on India’s Got Talent. As a dazed Sonali was being hoisted on Shah Rukh Khan’s shoulders and hugged by Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma at the glitzy finale in a Mumbai studio, parents Sanyasi and Alpana were watching their daughter’s dream soar, 1,800-odd kilometres away, on a portable television set at a neighbour’s house.

The Majumdar home has no TV. Till three months ago, they had no electricity either.

Sholoardari doesn’t show up on Google Earth. It doesn’t throw up any results when you google it either. But every resident of this tiny village — with barely 600 residents over 2 square kilometre, yes it’s tinier than Salt Lake’s BE Block — has been walking tall ever since Sonali aced the Colors talent show.

Sonali with her classmates and teachersat Sholoardari Sishu Shiksha Kendra	Sonali with her friends; best friendSreemita is on her left

“Sonali has done what no one else has been able to — unite this village. The night she won, there wasn’t a single dry eye in Sholoardari,” said neighbour Santosh Mondal.

That night, the whole village watched Sonali’s dream win on a giant screen erected on a field. Firecrackers were burst the whole night and for the next few days.

Sonali’s triumph is not the triumph of the Majumdar family alone; it is the triumph of an entire village, struggling to make its presence felt. “Bagda is one among the 22-odd blocks in North 24-Parganas and Sholoardari is a tiny village in it. Many don’t even know of our existence,” said Bishnupada Biswas, the head teacher of Sholoardari Sishu Shiksha Kendra, where Sonali was studying till about eight months ago.

Last Saturday, The Telegraph travelled to Sholoardari to relive Sonali’s magical journey from its muddy bylanes to Calcutta and then Mumbai. A four-hour journey by road from Calcutta, it is very easy to miss Sholoardari. For the village is hardly more than just a narrow lane on the edge of the Bangladesh border; you only have to walk a minute from Sonali’s home to “see” Bangladesh.

Sonali with partner Sumanth duringan India’s Got Talent performance	Sonali with parents Sanyasiand Alpana at home in Sholoardari

This is where Sonali — the daughter of field labourers — was living her anonymous life till Lady Luck came calling eight months ago. For that was when Bivash Choudhury of Bivash Academy of Dance in Lake Gardens took the young dancer with promise under his wings to train her for the big stage. That big stage turned out to be India’s Got Talent where Sonali’s gravity-defying dance movements with her 13-year-old partner Sumanth won her fans from Karan Johar to Kirron Kher, Malaika Arora Khan to Farah Khan. Along with the accolades came the IGT trophy.

Sonali started dancing at age four, entertaining her parents, neighbours and classmates with impromptu performances. However, she had no formal training, till she travelled to Calcutta eight months ago.

Sonali’s parents had heard of Bivash’s academy and how he trained talented dancers for free and a fellow villager then got in touch with him.

Today, the girl suffering from malnutrition when she made that life-changing trip from Sholoardari to Calcutta, feasts on chicken in every meal, sleeps in air-conditioned hotel rooms and loves dressing up in fancy clothes. Father Sanyasi may have been unable to pay Rs 25 as her school fee, but now his darling daughter is all set to bring in Rs 25 lakh, half of the Rs 50-lakh IGT booty.

The one-room Majumdar tenement in a corner of the village is built of mud and jute sticks. To protect themselves from the harsh winter, the family has plastered the walls with colourful posters of Bollywood stars, from Shah Rukh to Salman, Kareena to Katrina. A dim tube-light flickers; the government’s below-poverty-line ration of electricity allows Sholoardari only one light per home. On many evenings, even that sole light source goes out.

The spick-and-span room has a plaque from the Odisha government feting Sonali and Sumanth, a resident of Bhubaneswar, occupying pride of place.

A smiling Sonalifeeds the family cow	Sonali enjoys her midday meal with her classmates at Sholoardari Sishu Shiksha Kendra

On a good day, Sanyasi earns between Rs 100 and 120 working in the fields. On most days, he struggles to get home Rs 80. Even eight months ago, Sanyasi could hardly afford two square meals for his family. “I haven’t been able to ever buy good clothes for Sonali or fulfil even her small demands,” said the father, overwhelmed.

“We have seen Sonali dance before she could even walk properly, but we never ever thought that she had it in her to do this,” smiled mother Alpana, as Sonali, dressed in a pretty pink dress that she had hand-picked for the day — “Rongeen kapor porle chhobi bhalo othey (coloured clothes look better in pictures),” she chirped — ran around excitedly, showing off the Barbie doll and teddy bear that the villagers had presented her with a day ago.

Though she is on the brink of a new life — Sonali will perform at various TV events this month and Bivash is all set to embark on a world tour with his two proteges in February — the knee-high achiever comes across as just another seven-year-old. Running around with her best pals, feeding the cow in her backyard or even joining her classmates for their daily midday meal in school, Sonali isn’t letting go of this world even as she sets foot in another.

“Sonali hasn’t changed, even though she is on TV. We still play and even fight like we used to,” smiled best friend Sreemita. However, that doesn’t stop many of her own friends from badgering their parents to take pictures with Sonali. “Even the jawans on the border who have seen Sonali running through these very lanes came yesterday to meet her and the BDO (block development officer) felicitated her,” revealed a proud Sanyasi, basking in his daughter’s new-found celebrity status.

Her parents are wary of letting Sonali go, but they don’t want to come in the way of their daughter’s dreams. “We want her to do everything that we haven't ever been able to,” said Sanyasi.

But for Sholoardari, it’s a lot tougher to let their only famous face leave home and hearth. “She’s been coming first in class for the last three years. She’s the brightest we have... (pauses) had...,” teacher Bishnupada Biswas’s eyes well up as he talks about the Class IV student. “She was our daughter; now we have given her to the world,” added his colleague, Shefali Rai.

The village feast scheduled for that day in honour of Sonali - with chicken on the menu, of course - was funded by Sonali’s uncle Ratan. “She’s come home for only two days. God knows when we will get a chance to see her again,” he smiled wistfully.

Even as she steps into a little-known world, what Sonali leaves behind is hope for an entire village. “Though she is only seven, Sonali is an inspiration for us all. Now every kid here is filled with hope for the future. The hope that no matter how small you may be, you can still make it big,” summed up neighbour Mahadeb Sardar.

For Sholoardari — and for Sonali — the dream has just begun.