Fans vote at Amit’s residence in Shillong on Friday. Picture by Suraj Joshi

Shillong, Sept. 21: A group of giggling schoolgirls rushes up the stairs, almost knocking down a couple of Khasi women going down the steps.

The staircase is chock-a-block with people of all ages — everyone headed for a modest three-bedroom apartment on the second floor of an equally modest-looking building on G.S. Road.

This is a new “pilgrimage” in this beautiful hilltown which has seen a passionate singer rise to become a demi god.

Welcome to the home of Amit Paul, a young singer who has brought down age-old barriers in Meghalaya and given the people an Idol to worship.

Amit is a hot favourite to win the musical reality show Indian Idol III on Sony TV, the finals of which will be telecast on Sunday. In contention for the crown is a young singer from Darjeeling, Prashant Tamang.

The scene at Amit’s house is unbelievable. Hundreds of people, mostly women and young girls, wait patiently on the verandah and the street outside to cast their vote over telephone. And in service are 32 landline phone connections — six at his home and another 26 at a makeshift phone booth downstairs — being dialled incessantly from morning till midnight by his legions of fans.

Mothers, returning home with their young school-going students, are dropping by to cast their vote. Students, on their way to school, are stopping to cast their votes.

Thousands of people have been visiting his house everyday for the past few weeks.

Some of them come just to see and meet Amit’s parents, from morning till late in the night.

Now there are computer-printed posters on the walls of the building requesting people not to come after 7.30pm.

Tears welled up in the eyes of Amit’s 75-year-old grandmother Suruchi as she spoke of “dear Amit” and recounted how she had to sing to coax him to eat his food. That was when he was just four or five years of age. “He has always been crazy about music. He wouldn’t do anything if there was no music,” she recounted to The Telegraph.