A file picture of Rahat Taslim (third from left) with her family members

Ranchi, Nov. 21: Rahat Taslim will always thank her lucky stars that she had a balance of Rs 3 in her cellphone when she got the registration call from Kaun Banega Crorepati 2010. One rupee less and the 37-year-old tailor would not have been a crorepati today.

Rahat, the first woman to win Rs 1 crore on KBC 4, had recharged her cellphone with Rs 25 to register herself for the show on Sony. But seven attempts later, she just had Rs 3 — the amount required for registration — left when she got the call from the channel and answered three questions to book a berth on the hot seat opposite host Amitabh Bachchan.

“Rahat was always a lucky child for me. But I never thought that she would reach such a great height,” said the tailor’s mother, Taslima Khanam, who rushed to Giridih, where Rahat stays with her 16-year-old son Faisal Moazzam and daughter Tazim Rahat (13). Rahat’s husband Imtiaz Ahmed works at MMTC Ltd, Cochin.

Although the celebrity-of-the-moment will probably return from Mumbai on November 25 or 26, celebrations have already started at her uncle’s home in Hindpiri here. As friends, relatives and well-wishers of the family continued to pour in at the Firdous Nagar address to offer congratulations, a proud uncle of Rahat, Khalil Ahmed, recalled her childhood.

“She was always confident as a child and did well in school. Her confidence level has brought her to this stage today,” he said. “She had also tried her luck in KBC 1, but could not get through to register herself,” aunt Rukhsana Khatoon fondly remembered.

Cousin Haris Zahir, a final-year CA student, rued: “I had told her to contact me if she needed any help during the game. But I could not help her when she contacted me using phone-a-friend lifeline for the Rs 1-crore question.”

Rahat, who helps her husband run the household by making soft toys and stitching clothes to earn a paltry Rs 2,000-Rs 3,000 per month, was just one question away from the Rs 5 crore jackpot. But the woman, who had stood first in the matric, intermediate and graduation examinations, did not know the answer.

But she was smart. Unlike Meerut’s Prashant Batar, she did not push her luck further and chose to quit the game with a Rs 1 crore cheque in her name, which will now enable her to turn a dream into reality — open a boutique. Rahat has also decided to donate a part of the prize money to the poor, her family members add.

Son Faisal is ecstatic. “She was quite confident about the answers. She has really made us proud. Hum log bahut khush hain (We are very happy),” said Faisal, who wants to become a computer engineer.