MUMBAI: A lifetime achievement award conferred onto playback singer Asha Bhosle, by the Nightingale of India, who also happens to be her elder sister, was the highlight of Asha Bhosle’s weekend.

Receiving the Pandit Hridaynath Lifetime Achievement Award from her elder sister Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle was overjoyed and ecstatic. The award was instituted by their sibling Hridaynath, as the ‘Pandit Hridaynath Mangeshkar Award’. The first recipient of the prestigious award was Lata Mangeshkar, and now it is sibling Asha Bhosle’s turn.

Said an overjoyed Lataji, who bestowed the honour upon her younger sibling: “Asha has always been a winner. I sometimes believe she is a far more versatile singer than me,” she says.

On her part, Asha Bhosle found it touching that she was honoured by her elder sister, when she said “It is the award named after my brother and presented by my elder sister. That is far more precious than all the money and awards in the world.”

Both sisters were adorned in simple yet elegant white saris, and were overjoyed to be at the award ceremony at Vile Parle.