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Merrill Lynch honours Lata Mangeshkar
26th Nov 2005 20.57 IST
By Agencies

Melody queen Lata Mangeshkar has been conferred the 'life time achievement award' by Merrill Lynch Investment Managers and Adora, India's second largest diamond exporter, in recognition of her outstanding achievement in fields of art, culture and music.

76-Year-old Mangeshkar was in London in connection with Christie's auction of diamond jewellery created by her and crafted by Adora, which fetched 1,05,000 pounds.

Part of the auction money would be donated for the relief of earthquake victims in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Jammu and Kashmir and children's charity 'Pratham', she said.

Receiving the silver inlaid trophy from Adora chief M Suresh, Mangeshkar said it was the responsibility of everyone to help alleviate suffering of quake victims and she had volunteered to do whatever she can in that connection.

Mangeshkar, winner of India's highest civilian award 'Bharat Ratna' and 'Dada Saheb Phalke' award for her contribution to the Indian cinema, said it would be good for people of India and Pakistan if relations between the two countries were normalised.

"I feel that will happen but I can't say when it will happen. But right now the victims of earthquake were in dire need of help and assistance and one and all should help them."

The fund-raising auction at the Langham hotel was attended among others by Lord Swraj Paul, NRI industrialist and British ambassador for overseas business, Joginder Sanger, NRI hotelier and vice chairman of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, and several other leading NRI industrialists.

Mangeshkar, the Supreme voice of popular Indian music who is the most recorded artist in the world, said 'swaranjali', the diamond jewellery designed by her, was reflection of her love for jewellery.

She said her father Dinanath Mangeshkar, himself a reputed singer, had given her a lot of diamond jewellery and she thought of bringing out new designs of diamond jewellery based on her own collections.

"I showed the designs, colour combinations and distinct jewellery line to Adora and they have brought out the new designs with my signature," she said, describing it as a fascinating story.

Each of the five jewellery pieces auctioned were embossed with Lata Mangeshkar's signature. The rose, a definite showstopper, which has 598 diamonds weighing 4.77 carats and gold weighing 27.876 grams fetched 30,000 pounds, while a diamond and ruby eternity set, with laser engraved with her signature went for 26,000 pounds.

A diamond suite, an enchanting piece of jewellery with unique blend of marquise-cut, pear-shaped diamonds weighing 19.63 carats in the necklace and 11.61 carats in the earrings, was sold for 28,000 pounds. A diamond and emerald suite went for 19,000 pounds while a diamond and blue topaz pendant fetched 2,600 pounds.

On the sidelines of the awards ceremony, Mangeshkar said she planned to build another hospital adjacent to the 450-bed Dinanath Memorial Hospital, she had built in memory of her father in Pune.

She recalled that the hospital, built in the record time of 18 months, was inaugurated by the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in 2002.

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