Zakir Hussain won a Grammy in Contemporary World Music Album category for his collaborative album Global Drum Project this week.

Would the millions of news sites given so much importance to this, if Rahman didn’t win a Golden Globe last month? How many of these sites covered it when Zakir Hussain received his first Grammy? Btw, Aavakai didn't exist then :)

Snippets from few leading news sites:
- “After Rahman's BAFTA, Zakir Hussain bags Grammy…” on http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/Media__Enterta...
- ‘Join us in congratulating Rahman and Zakir Hussain for making us proud to be Indians. Jai Ho!” - http://in.rediff.com/movies/2009/feb/09congratulate-rahman-hussain.htm
- “As India celebrates the glory of A R Rahman bagging BAFTA for Slumdog Millionaire, and now its Indian legend tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain who has won the 'best contemporary world music album category', initial reports stated”. - http://news.oneindia.in/2009/02/09/ustad-zakir-hussain-wins-grammy.html
- “While "Slumdog Millionaire" picked up seven BAFTA awards in a ceremony in London, the Indian presence was also felt at the Grammies with tabla maestro Zakir Hussain winning in the Contemporary World Music Album category for his collaborative album "Global Drum Project" (http://www.deccanchronicle.com/node/15227/print)”

Almost every news site associated Rahman’s name next to Zakir Hussain’s name. This is the sixth time that an Indian won the Grammy. Earlier three includes Ravi Shankar (won thrice), Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Zakir Hussain (twice) [courtesy wikipedia]. How well was this news covered earlier, I wonder!

In any case, Aavakiites, especially all our percussion-lovers and ardent followers of both, the late Ustad Allah Rakha and Ustad Zakir Hussain, are very proud and excited of this news. I personally am too. Apart from Telugu classical music where devotional music & classical music go hand-in-hand with Annamayya’s compositions, any other classical music that I mostly listen to is mostly of Zakir Hussain's or Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia. Infact, I very often play Zakir’s ‘The Elements’ collection CDs during my little one’s bed time.

I read his interview at http://movies.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4112534.cms – so accomplished & yet so humble. Wah Ustad!
Per his wishes, let’s hope he wins a Grammy in the classical music category sometime soon.