Vinit Singh, considered as the favourite to be crowned as the voice of India in the musical talent show "Hero Honda Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2005", is shocked by his defeat but is putting it behind him and looking ahead to a successful singing career.

The Lucknow boy, who lost to Assam's Debojit in a photo-finish grand finale of the show here Feb 24, is still coming to terms with his defeat.

"I am very happy for Debu bhaiyya. He has worked hard to get where he has. But I don't understand what happened. Of course I wanted to win. And I was pretty sure I would," said Vinit.

In the viewer votes Debojit got around 30 million votes from the east zone, as compared only to 15 million votes from Vinit's north zone. Eventually Debojit emerged victorious by a margin of 0.2 percent votes.

In fact, Debojit's victory came as a surprise to the entire Sa Re Ga Ma Pa team.

Vinit's friend and another contestant Himani Kapoor, who was voted out from the show earlier, was also baffled. "I always felt Vinit would win. He had the confidence and he seemed to have an edge. Everyone liked Vinit. So what went wrong?" she queried.

That's a question Vinit's family and friends are also asking.

But Vinit is confident about the future.

He said: "There are so many contestants from 'Indian Idol' and 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa' who didn't quite make it to the top. But today they are on their way up. By god's grace I am already recording songs with my mentor Himeshji (music director Himesh Reshammiya).

"'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa' gave me a head start. Now let's see where I go."