A Bangalore-based techie working with an American multinational is among the four winners of the US state department's global online video contest held to encourage cross-cultural understanding and community building.
Bijoy Thangaraj, 23, a software engineer working for the Honeywell Technology Solutions in Bangalore, won the award for his three minute video titled 'My Culture + Your Culture = World of Wonder', the State Department announced on Tuesday.
Held by the state department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the contest was co-sponsored by the Adobe Youth Voices initiative of the Adobe Foundation.
The other three winners of this global contest are Jose Vinícius Reis Gouveia (16) from Brazil for his video entitled 'Human Colours', Grant Jirka (14) of Columbus for 'Winning Team' and Tim Peters (22) of Illinois for 'A Friend in Nanjing'.
While the international winners will receive a two-week all-expenses-paid exchange programme to the US, the American winners will receive the same to an overseas destination. They will receive multi-media software provided by the Adobe Foundation.
According to the information available on the State Department website, Thangaraj's hobbies include composing music, playing the guitar and keyboard. He has recorded instrumental albums and is currently working on a gospel album.