My A. R. Rahman Graph

This is definitely the high time of A. R. Rahman's career. After giving us five mindblowing albums back to back last year, he started this year with Delhi 6, a masterpiece album which I rank as one of his career bests, and Connections, his private album released exclusively on Nokia, a brilliant album full of pure ARR gems, and then went on to win two Oscars as well as Golden Globe and BAFTA for his score in Slumdog Millionaire. And just when we thought it couldn't have been better he gave us the absolutely rocking Blue, then sensational music for Shekhar Kapoor's short film Passage and then a treat for all his fans, his score for his second mainstream Hollywood film, Couples Retreat. Wow.... this man knows no stops when it comes to successes.. To celebrate this memorable time I went back to the time I first heard Muqabala song and my world was changed, and compiled a graph of all of his albums with the rating I gave to each. The graph illustrates his 50 Hindi albums (total are 54) skipping four low profile dubbed albums (Dharam Yodha 93, Khel Khiladi Ka 96, Mr Romeo 97, Muthu Maharaja 01). It lists (well at least I have tried that) albums chronologically, i.e., according to their release dates. The graph also highlights my overall disappointment with his post Taal work compared to the very high standards he set for himself earlier. It also shows that to me Delhi 6 is his best work since Taal. Click to see it in high resolution. No fan of his can be a true fan without listening to his Tamil albums, the music which started it all and which made him crossing all the boundaries. Unfortunately (and fortunately) I have only recently got his whole non-Hindi collection and planning to compile a graph for it too very soon.

Blue by A.R. Rahman : My views

The much hyped score of Blue by A. R. Rahman, his first after winning two Oscars early this year, is out now. Blue is catchy, refreshing, rocking and innovative, and boasts of a complete new sound by the maestro. It is yet another great accomplishment for ARR, who didn't only live up to the massive expectations but also reinvented his sound and came up with a truly chart-buster album. He has come up with a masses' album keeping in view the commercial aspect of the film. As a result, this time you don't need to wait for songs to grow on you, this time they are instantly likable. It is commercial-oriented but still very Rahmansih.

Chiggy Wiggy - Okay this is the much hyped and much talked about song featuring Kylie Minogue. Honestly, it is quite a big let-down. Bringing in an international high-profile artist to sing in a Bollywood mega-budget film, we were expecting much more but the result is far from overwhelming. Chiggy Wiggy is an ordinary song. As some reviewer put it, anyone could have composed Chiggy Wiggy. If producers forced it to ARR then they are biggest idiots, anyone could have composed it, they didn't need ARR to do it. The first part, where Kylie sings, sounds like a Pritam song (though it is still better than the second part). The second part where Sonu comes in is no different, mediocre and offering nothing new. A big culprit is song's title too, not sure what was in Abbas Tyrewala's (lyricist) mind when he came up with these words. In short, Kylie is totally wasted (not to mention those millions they paid her). A disappointment overall. Verdict: 5.5/10

Aaj Dil - Refreshing and catchy. Also this is perhaps the most Rahmanish song in the album. It boasts of some beautiful guitar and string arrangements. Both Sukhwinder and Shreya sounded superb, especially Shreya's voice sounded so sweet. In places the song has ARR's mid-90s era feeling, particularly Daud. A winner all the way. Verdict: 7.5/10

Fiqrana - This is the star of the album, what a smash-hit song with such addictive and groovy beats. It is Rahman rediscovering himself, victoriously. And when it goes like Milte hain rom rom rom se hum, it is still vintage ARR. I must say Farhan Akhtar has missed something (he was offered to sing this song, but it didn't work out for some reasons). Vijay Prakash is a true revelation, I can see him going places. It is hard to believe he is the same singer who sang the classical Manmohini morey (Yuvraaj) and later the marvelous Mann chandre from Connections, a lost masterpiece album stupidly released only on Nokia mobile phone. In places he sounds like ARR too which made me realize that perhaps ARR himself would've been a great choice to sing this song. Also in places the song gives the feeling of Pakistani pop songs. Fiqrana would keep rocking the charts for long time from now. A chartbuster in all respects. Verdict: 8/10

Bhoola Tujhe - A nice song though not up to ARR's standard. It starts of beautifully but then doesn't quite live up to the expectations. The most beautiful part of the song is the humming at the end. Rashid Ali's pronunciation is poor in places, he needs to work on it. Lyrics are part good part poor. Especially lyrics such as Bache koi khud se bhi, bache na wo qismat se, bache to woh bas teri azmat se could have been better. Verdict: 6/10

Blue Theme - An enjoyable song overall. Loved the beats. The female singer (Sonu Kakkar??) who sings at 2:17 is superb. Great vocals. It is the high point of the song. On the negative side too much "blooo" is going on. Verdict: 6.5/10

Rehnuma - My most favorite song of the album. This song is ARR's kaatil adaa (killer gesture). And Shreya helped it making even more kaatil. The James Bond-esque theme loop is amazingly awesome. Sonu's entry Teri panaahon mein to zindagani shaayad milegi khud ko mitake is ecstasy, absolutely loved it. String arrangements are simply outstanding. In places they remind of Madonna's Frozen. Does it has anything to do with ARR's experience of working with Craig Armstrong (on Elizabeth: The Golden Age)? A killer song. Two thumbs up. Verdict 8/10

Yaar Mila Tha - Honestly I didn't like this song in first hearing, it sounded too Sajid-Wajid type of a song  (especially Maar diya dulhaniya line). But I must admit I was wrong, at its soul it is still an ARR song. Wait for some time to let it grow on you and it will do wonders. Great job by Udit and Madhushree though once again poor effort by Abbas (lyrics). Verdict: 7/10


Shreya is a revelation yet again, what an awesome performance by her, she rocked the album. I am glad that she did something different than the typical stuff she's been doing for a while. And she sounded so different here, especially I don't think she ever sounded like she did in Rehnuma. Kaatil adaaaaa.

There are few problems worth-mentioning. Though it is great to see some good Urdu lyrics, which is quite rare, however sometime it feels stretched, e.g. complex or weird Urdu words are used which even Urdu speakers can't understand (how many Urdu speaking people actually use or even know the word Fiqrana?). Also Urdu pronunciation is lousy in several places. One example is Bhoola Tujhe sung by Rashid Ali, though it is still way better compared to Ishq ada (Ada) where he literally ruined the song with wrong pronunciation. Another problem, earlier noticed in some places e.g. Kaise mujhe (Ghajini) is that sometimes music becomes so loud that vocals go in background instead. This is especially the case with Aaj Dil in few places.

Summary: After giving one of his career bests early this year in shape of Delhi 6 (my verdict: 8.5/10), ARR once again has proved he is the undisputed best and arguably one of the most versatile composers in the world.

Overall verdict: 7.5/10

Michael Jackson you will be remembered forever!

More than three weeks have passed since MJ's death but it is still hard to believe that he is no more. Every time I read some news related to him, the haunting truth becomes fresh. The greatest entertainer of all time, one of the greatest artists the world has ever seen, and the MOST famous and the MOST influential, the King of Pop Michael Jackson is dead! Oh my God, how can this be true, I cannot believe this, I am deeply shocked. I have been his die-hard fan since 1991, the very day I listened his Dangerous album the first time. Me and my younger brother Basim have been his die-hard fans since that time and he's been so integral to our lives for many years that it feels as if someone very close to us has died, like some family member. No matter what the world has to say about his personal life and issues, he was the most famous and most beloved artist the world has ever seen. Here from "world" I would exclude the celebrity-crazy Americans who care more about artists' personal lives, what they wear in the bed and in toilets etc etc, than artist's art. MJ was undoubtedly one of the most incredible, most talented artists of the world's history. Everything he did was unique and a rage, be it his music, his singing, his lyrics, his trademark electrifying dance moves, his dresses, his style, or his fashion. He single-handedly changed the face of pop music, the choreography and music videos. I don't think the world is gonna witness another megastar like him again. The way he broke geographical, cultural, religious boundaries to reach in every corner of the world, no one gonna do it again. He was a cultural icon. He was simply INCREDIBLE. If someone makes a poll about the world's most famous, most known person ever, it will be MJ downright. You ask this question to any 5 year or 50 year, even in the farthest corners of the world, this is gonna be MJ. People wont give a damn who is Obama, Bush or Clinton, or who is Einstein or Newton, Alexander The Great, Bill Gates, even Osama Bin Laden etc etc, but they will surely know who MJ is. Now that MJ is being mourned and tributed around the globe (here are some tributes from Sweden, Denmark and France, countries where I am living or lived recently) the American media has suddenly waked up and hailing him as "the greatest entertainer the world has ever seen" etc etc, but the fact remains that Americans will never ever know how famous and influential he was. They will never come out of their little world (read "America") and experience how he was loved and appreciated at the farthest corners of world. It is a shame that the whole world is mourning the death of world's most famous artist but Americans never truly appreciated his genius, in fact they neglected him which eventually resulted in his unfortunate death.

But more than anything else, more than the weak relationship of celebrity and fan, it was the "connection" with MJ that has left me heartbroken. 18 years is a big significant part of one's life and MJ was always there in these 18 years. Like thousands of people, I grew up listening to his music. I heard about MJ the first time from my father (may be he is still guilty of that :)), it was jut a short intro of how big star he is, probably it started from his photo in some magazine. Then couple of times again, from a discussion between father and one of his friends about MJ's concert and how he dances etc. And then one day I got my hands on his Dangerous album from another friend of father's, and then there was no looking back for me. It was year 1991 and we lived in Libya. I still remember how me and my Libyan friends Omar and Saeed used to enjoy the album secretly in their parents' car. Then I returned to Pakistan with my family and this was only later that I discovered MJ's previous albums Thriller, Bad and Off The Wall. I still remember that sheer excitement of watching his music videos and live concerts. Our music interest started and ended on MJ. I remember when we bought our new multi-disk stereo system, how we promised to ourselves that MJ's would be the first song played on it, an an inauguration (we played Who Is It). When History was released in 1995 I am sure I was one of those who got it in very first days of its release in Pakistan (especially my city Faisalabad). I remember finding it in an audio shop but before I could get it a foreigner woman bought the last two copies they were left with in stock right in front of my eyes, I was pissed off and I had to explore all major audio shops on my bicycle under scorching sun of 45+ degree. Then I remember the time of release of Invincible in 2001 during the first semester of my BCS and I spent lot of time in reading news and forums on MJ. Cry was the first single available to download and many days following that it was the only song in my play list. Then the night when couple of more songs were leaked on Internet, I remember the excitement and joy me and my brother shared while listening those songs, especially Whatever Happens and 2000 Watts. We were sooooo happy for MJ's comeback and were completely blown away for the brilliant songs. Then life became very hectic, until last year when MJ released Thriller's 25th anniversary edition and I grabbed a copy. And then now when me and my brother were still discussing the possibility of attending his This is it concert in London, on 26th morning I got this damned email from him and in frustration I opened MJ's Wikipedia page and oh man it is beyond description how heartbroken I felt to find a "was" in front of Michael Jackson there.

The person who has been part of your life for so long and has brought unforgettable and unmatchable joy, excitement, passion to your life, and suddenly you hear he is dead, it is an unforgettable grief, you feel like someone very close to you died. All memories in your life associated to him bring you sadness every time you recall them. You feel like all those memories have vanished all of sudden. The grief I felt was, more than anything else, because of my "connection" with him. A connection like we have with our family, friends, etc, just a different kind of connection. This tragedy, more than anything else, has left me shaken inside, reminding me that life is temporary and everyone has to leave one day. MJ was the only one artist in my life I admired and appreciated with such passion (only A.R.Rahman comes close but still with hundreds of years of distance in between).

I am sad and heartbroken. God made only one MJ, no one like him will ever come again. I salute to the incredibly supreme talent of this soft-hearted and gentle but immensely troubled and misunderstood person. May his soul rest in peace and his sins be forgiven! R.I.P. Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, you will live in our hearts forever!

If you are also an MJ fan and happens to read this blog, please pay tribute to this GREAT artist by posting your MJ memories on his official website here (already some 550,000 memories have been registered).

Random bits in remembrance of MJ:

I'm Starting With The Man In The Mirror

I'm Asking Him To Change His Ways

And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer

If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place

Take A Look At Yourself, And Then Make A Change

(Michael Jackson's Man In The Mirror, 1988)

Those lovely days of animes

Like every other kid I was also absolutely crazy for cartoons in my childhood. I lived 12 years of those sweet days of my childhoods in Libya. Like many other Arab countries in Libya also they used to telecast animes translated/dubbed in Arabic. Most of these animes were in fact Japanese animes, pioneer in this field. My most favorites were Sasuki (originally Manga Sarutobi Sasuke), Captain Majid (Captain Tsubasa) and Voltron (Beast King GoLion). I was so crazy about Captain Majid, especially the character Walid, goalkeeper from Majid's team. My craze for him lead me standing between goal poles all the time. Interestingly Captain Majid has been a source of inspiration for many real life footballers too. Sasuki remained my most favorite cartoon due to its full of magics and wizards story and the protagonist Sasuki who could transform himself in any creature in order to defeat his opponents (this was great fun in that age). Some other of my favorites were Raad al Imlak (Tetsujin 28), Zahrat-al-Jabal (Alpen Rose), Bel wa Sabastian (Meiken Jolie) and to some extent Sanafir (The Smurfs) too. Some of my most favorite cartoon opening songs were of Captain Majid, Fta al Marai (Makiba no Shoujo Katori), Fares, al Fata al Shuja (Ganbare Genki), Zahrat-al-Jabal (Alpen Rose) and Sali (Shoukoujo Sara). After I returned to Pakistan in 1992 I never thought that I will ever be able to find information on my favorite animes again. Thanks to computer revolution that made it possible.

Sasuki (Manga Sarutobi Sasuke)

Voltron (Beast King GoLion)

Captain Majid (Captain Tsubasa)

Raad al Imlak (Tetsujin 28)

Zahrat-al-Jabal (Alpen Rose)

Fares, al Fata al Shuja (Ganbare Genki)

Bel wa Sabastian (Meiken Jolie)

Sali (Shoukoujo Sara)

Fta al Marai (Makiba no Shoujo Katori)

Sanafir (The Smurfs)

Renting apartment? Beware of scams!

Just adding my experience here so that a little googling could save people from becoming victims of these scams/frauds. These days I am searching for a suitable apartment to rent in Copenhagen. I came across an advertisement (on www.ledige-lejligheder.dk) of an ideal apartment located in heart of the city with surprisingly low monthly rent. Though sure that such an ideal apartment would be no longer available, just for the sake of trying I contacted the owner and I was quite surprised to receive response within few hours. Anyways, the person wrote that he is a lawyer and had to suddenly move to Greece for business reasons and wants to rent out his apartment from there. Below is the response text:

Good morning,
My name is Malene Andres and I'm the owner of the apartment located on 154 Gothersgade, Copenhagen! I am looking for someone to live in it, because my law firm has won an auction to represent an important company from Athens! I am a lawyer,so my accommodation period in Greece will be about 3 years.

The apartment has 65m2 and is fully furnished, but I have the option of sending all my furniture into a storage if you want to bring your own.The rent for 1 month is 4200 DKr including all utilities as water, electricity, gas...The renting period is from minimum 2 months up to 3 years. The only problem is that I'm already in Greece because we've started the work and I'm the only person who has the keys, but there is no need to worry because I have made all the arrangements to rent the apartment from here !

I'm waiting for your response and I will explain you more about how we will do this.

All the best!

Malene

PS: excuse me for repling you in english, but my danish is not soo good.

The first thing, though ignorable, I noticed that the reply was too detailed and properly formatted/capitalized. Given the fact that apartments are highly in-demand in Copenhagen normally one does not get any response or one liners otherwise. I then noticed that the ad (find it at the end) is also too detailed (it mentions almost all of Copenhagen's attractions) and formatted, as if written by some business professional. Anyways, as I proceeded the person proposed that he will send keys and contract via TNT.

The apartment is ready for you, you will need only to receive the keys and the contract to check it, and see if you like it; the only matter is that I'm in Athens already. Obviously we need a way to complete this deal... The solution is provided by a company called TNT which is similar to FedEx or UPS, which will handle both payment and delivery of the keys. Through this way you will see it and decide if you will stay in the apartment or not before I receive my payment.

As we proceeded the first thing that made me little careful was that he ignored my request of writing me his phone number. Anyways I ignored it for the moment. I liked the TNT solution and things were fine with me until he added that I have to pay to TNT before seeing the apartment and making my decision and not after:

I will need to inform you the steps about how this service works and how we can make it happen. You will only have to deposit to TNT the first month of rent 4200 DKr so they can proceed with the shipping, and you can receive the keys and the contract.TNT will hold the money until you will confirm to them that you like the apartment and keep the keys. If you don't like it, you only have to return the keys to them after they will refund the money to you and they will deliver the keys back to me.

This made me suspicious of something fishy. Anyways I agreed but asking him to send me scanned copy of apartment documents proving that he owns it, and that TNT must provide me in written that they will return the amount if I return the keys. My suspicion got stronger as he once again ignored it. Analyzing this all, before I received the TNT notification, I was like 50% convinced that it is a fraud. TNT notification further strengthened it as it was sent from tnt.globalexpress@consultant.com and not from tnt.com or tnt.dk etc, and it asked me to pay money directly through MoneyGram (without any involvement of TNT). This all was sufficient for me to understand the full story, of course I would never receive any keys after I pay. Anyways to put this all to end I then dropped by the apartment address and was not very surprised to find no apartment on his name. A little googling then was sufficient to know that it was in fact a known scam and has been reported (and has victimized many people too) in many places especially in USA, UK and France etc. The culprits did not even bother to change the format and text of emails, only the locations and reasons of being outside country were slightly modified. Interestingly similar scams have been reported to sell electronic goods, cars and even dogs! I only wonder what makes these dumb-heads believe that people are that much foolish.

For Google: Beware of apartment/flat rental scams/frauds. It is now happening in Copenhagen, Denmark too. These scams use services such as TNT and MoneyGram and ask you to pay in advance to receive keys.

Here is the advertisement text:

Luxury apartment, 2 rooms. 65 m2

Charming and modern 2 bedrooms flat situated in the center of Copenhagen. Walking distance to all major attractions in Copenhagen and to shops, restaurants and fine shops and much more!

The unique copenhagen apartment is fully furnished in a homey atmosphere. It has 2 bedrooms, a huge kitchen direct connection to living room with fireplace. From here you have access to a suite / living room, bedroom with king size bed, and playroom. In walking distance to the street street, City Hall, Tivoli Gardens, theNational Museum, The Little Mermaid, Amalienborg Palace, The National Gallery, Canal Tours, Tivoli Gardens, the Round Tower.

Nearest Metro: Nørreport Station

Nearest bus: Bus 5A and 350

This annnonce was placed on 23.03.2009

Rent per. months 4200 kr

Deposit 4200 kr

Email Address malene-andres@hotmail.com

Rome and SIMUTools 2009

1-8 March. I was visiting Rome (Italy) to present my paper An IEEE 802.16 WiMAX Module for the NS-3 Simulator in the ACM SIMUTools 2009 (Conference on Simulation Tools and Techniques) conference. The paper represents my work at INRIA Sophia-Antipolis where I worked for two years as R&D Engineer.

The conference and presentation went quite well. Besides this Rome is a wonderful place full of historical sites and monuments. I absolutely loved it and recommend it to everyone. Find link to my paper here and some photos here.

A.R.Rahman wins 2 Oscar awards!

And here we go... the biggest achievement for an artist, the Academy/Oscar awards, and the legend A.R.Rahman wins 2. When it is written, no one can change it. This is the very message conveyed by the film (Slumdog Millioniare) which won him 2 Oscars and which in total won 8. What a man, what a genius, what music, what a magic, what a destiny, and finally what a celebration.....

The legendary A.R.Rahman becomes "Oscar winning composer" today with his double victory at Oscars for the Best Original Score for Slumdog Millionaire and Best Original Song for "Jai ho" from Slumdog Millionaire. A.R.Rahman also performed the two nominated songs (Jai ho and O saya..) on stage. With this A.R.Rahman has become the third Indian to win the Oscar and first ever to win it twice and perform on Oscar stage.

I am the HAPPIEST man on planet earth right now. It was a one-in-a-life-time moment seeing him winning the Oscar, and that too twice. What a joy, pride, excitement.... cannot explain, it was like being on the seventh sky. Now I feel even more pride that I am his fan for last 15+ years.

All my life, I've had a choice of hate and love. I chose love, and here I'm. These were the words of the maestro while accepting Oscar awards. As always he ended his speech with God is Great. Full speeches can be accessed here and here.

Wish A.R.Rahman on his historical victory here on his official website. Join his fans' biggest online group (arrahmanfans yahoo group) here to celebrate and share these great moments. Buy the double Oscar winning music of Slumdog Millioniare here.