Bharat Ratna for Lata, Bismillah Khan

Bharat Ratna for Lata, Bismillah Khan
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Jan 25: Melody queen Lata Mangeshkar, who has enthralled people for over five decades with her songs, and shehnai wizard Ustad Bismillah Khan were tonight awarded the Bharat Ratna, the nation's highest civilian honour.

Lata, who made her debut as a playback singer at the age of 17 and has sung over 30,000 songs earlier, is a recipient of the Padma Bhushan and Dada Saheb Phalke award for her contribution to film and music.

Lata continues to sing at the age of 70 with her voice still retaining its golden hue.

The 84-year-old Khan, who has already been awarded the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan, learnt shehnai under Ali Bux and Ahmed Hussain of Benaras and gave his first public performance at the age of 14 at an all India music conference in Allahabad in 1930 and has not looked back since then.

A Rashtrapati Bhavan communique announced the awards on the eve of the Republic Day.

Khan visited the US in 1967, East Asia in 1970, South America in 1973 and France in 1974 besides attending the World Music Conference in Berlin in 1977 and India Festival in 1986.

He is recipient of innumerable other prizes like the Tanzen award, the Nepal Academy award, the Soviet Land Nehru award and Kala Saraswati award.

Deeply in love with India, Khan once politely turned down the offer of an American connoisseur to stay in the US saying "Build me my ghats, the river, the life as I know it, in the backyard and may be I will stay back".