America
Two Indians win honours at Grammy Awards
Los Angeles, Feb 9
Two Indians -- Ricky Kej
and Neela Vaswani -- took home a Grammy Award each at the 57th edition
of the musical extravaganza held here Sunday night. The latter's
narration of the audio of the book "I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up
For Education And Changed The World" won her the trophy.
Vaswani,
who stays in New York, bagged a Grammy in the Best Children's Album
category for recreating Pakistan's Nobel laureate Yousufzai's book in
audio form. It reaches out to tell a tale of a brave teenaged girl who
risked her life for the right to go to school.
The story relates
Malala's bravery and determination in the face of extremism, detailing
the daily challenges of growing up in a world transformed by terror.
Meanwhile, Bangalore-based Kej's "Winds Of Samsara" won the Best New Age Album trophy.
For
"Winds of Samsara", which symbolises peace and harmony, Kej teamed up
with South African musician Wouter Kellerman. The website of their album
describes the project as a "truly global effort", which draws
inspiration from two cultures.
This year, Anoushka Shankar,
Indian sitarist and daughter of late sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, missed a
Grammy gong. She was nominated for her album "Traces of You" in the
Best World Music Album category. She lost to Angelique Kidjo's album
"Eve".
The Grammy Awards were dominated this year by Sam Smith
and Pharrell Williams, and saw a string of performances by popular
names, adding to the glitz and glamour of the annual gala.