Rajkumari receives the award from Pogo hosts Chinu, Niall and Rob in Mumbai

Calcutta, Dec. 19: When the rest of her friends are practising algebra and mugging up history dates, Rajkumari Sanathoi is busy giving interviews.

Adjudged the Pogo Amazing Kid 2006 in the dance category in a nationwide talent hunt organised by the popular TV channel for children, the 15-year-old girl from Manipur has been spending the better part of the past few days recounting her feat to journalists.

“The officials of Bal Bhavan had sent me the form from Delhi,” says the Imphal girl, who had bagged the Balshri title (the equivalent of Padmashri for children) in 2004. The rest of the script unfolded “like a dream”.

Rajkumari, who has been dancing since the age of three, had an unsuccessful shot at the Pogo title in 2005. This year, the Class X student of Little Flower School is on the threshold of board examinations. So, when Pogo called her for an interview to Calcutta, she refused to miss her half-yearly tests. The channel then offered to take the interview over phone.

“So there I was, carrying a cellphone to school on the day of my physics test!” The next incident took her by surprise.

“One day, my mother barged into the school. The channel people were coming to Imphal to shoot me, she said. I was at my wit’s end”. Thankfully, she was given the night to prepare.

The next morning, the crew followed her to all her favourite haunts — the Ramji Prabhu temple, where she prayed with her father, the neighbouring hill where she played with friends, the Chorus auditorium where she practised “singing” and the palace, where her uncle, King Leishemba Sanajaoba, sang her praises.

And when the news about her selection in the top three came, there was hardly any time to lose. She had three days to practise with her guru Takhelambam Tiken Meitei.

“I was asked to prepare a 60-second spot of a Bollywood dance and 90 seconds of Manipuri,” recalls the girl. And there was no debate over what she would dance to. As a tot, she had swayed to Dil Cheez Kya Hain from Umrao Jaan on stage and earned the sobriquet “small Rekha”.

But what proved the clincher in Mumbai was her general knowledge.

“The judges Derek O’Brien and Anita Ratnam started off without warning”. Rajkumari faced the barrage bravely though. She is thankful to her father for teaching her the state’s cultural history.

“That’s how I knew which famous poet had spread Manipuri dance across the world.” The answer is Rabindranath Tagore. (His dance drama Chitrangada portrays a princess from Manipur)

The day before the finals found Rajkumari busy picking up the steps of Rock ‘n’ Roll Soniye with fellow finalists Santosh (Western dance) and Varsha (Odissi).

Keeping them company was actress Preity Zinta. “She hugged us and said that despite having done the song in the film and in numerous shows, she was forgetting the steps which we took just half-an-hour to pick up.” Coming from her favourite actress, the praise added a spring to Rajkumari’s steps.

Though the dance did not happen the next day as Preity had to leave early, there was more to come her way.

The audience was rooting for local boy Santosh when her name was announced. “I was out of my mind with joy,” she laughs, adding that she was told that she had bagged the maximum SMS votes among the winners in all the eight categories that the award is presented in. “The votes came mostly from Assam and south India,” says the Northeast’s new-found TV talent after Debojit Saha.

The contest over, and with the exams in March, it is now back to books for the twinkle-toed teenager.