It is the last thing one would expect on a birthday. But for the 19-year-old pretty Tia Kar, her elimination from Indian Idol was not what she expected she would get. While judges had been predicting her elimination for a long time, she managed to stay on – partly due to her luck and partly due to her charming on-stage presence. TellyChakkar spoke to the teenager who broke down many times during the interview. It is sad your 19th birthday brought this sad news… While I am very sad I have been voted out on my birthday, I must also admit it was a fantastic experience to celebrate my birthday with so many luminaries. Anu Malik, Salim Merchant, Sunidhi Chauhan – all of them were there during the celebration. And, everyone in the unit gave me some gift. Even the hotel staff gave me a gift on my birthday. Could I have asked for more? In the last three months, every day has been special in Indian Idol. What do you think went wrong? Those who have followed my performances throughout the show will agree that I was not always bad. In the theatre round I even got a standing ovation. But somehow during the gala and piano rounds, things started going wrong. I could realize the judges were not happy with my performance. The songs that were given to me were also responsible to an extent for my performance. I tried to overcome this hurdle a lot, but that did not reflect in my singing. Guess this led to my ouster… You have mentioned your father is your inspiration… My father Deepen Kumar Kar has sang in a number of films including Hero Hiralal and Duty. Seeing him in front of me was indeed an inspiration. I also used to watch Sunidhi Chauhan and Shreya Ghoshal a lot right from my childhood days. I used to dream of becoming a singer like them. Few years back my friend Pranav and my brother encouraged me to take up singing as a career. But let me tell you I do not have any formal training in music. I feel if I had some training I could have gone farther. You were very popular amongst the contestants and had a personal message for all of them… I became very good friends with all of them. Actually, it is very difficult for me to imagine that I won’t be with them, doing the morning riyaaz. Swaroop is like my younger brother while Sreeram is very hard-working. I used to notice how he put in his 100 per cent in every song. I will be very happy if he wins the title. Rakesh, on the other hand is very stable and humble. Nothing can shake him! What do you plan to do next? Of course, I want to make a career in singing. In the last three months, my life has changed completely and I cannot think of anything but singing. I want to learn music formally now. I have heard a lot of Suresh Wadkar’s school and I would love to learn music from him. I also want to complete my studies.