Emergency Number 108

You would have heard about the emergency number '911' is US. A similar kind of emergency toll free number '108' has been introduced in India by Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI). This was introduced in 2005.

108 is basically for police, medical and fire (Prank calls to 108 will be tracked by police). 108 is currently used in 11 states across India and around 2000 ambulances are in use. The Government of India promises to bring it all across the country by 2011 and also bring about 10000 new ambulances.

It's nearly five years since 108 was introduced but none here have even heard about it. Indian Government should have made sure to advertise it properly but all they did was stick bills on buses. Who even bother to read the bills on buses??? I hope the service would be as good as the '911', like in Hollywood movies.

Eeram

Eeram is the latest movie produced by Director Shankar. The movie was okay (I was expecting a murder mystery). But there was one thing I couldn't believe when I saw or rather i should say, when I heard. The composer of Eeram was Thaman and he did a fairly good job. But I was totally frustrated when I heard a particular sound track which was a perfect copy of 'Stranger', from 'Dark Knight' (Yes, Kavin. The same track which sounds like the train, which you posted in your blog). 

You may think its a very common thing, copying BGM from Hollywood. Even I was used to all these but not this time. Its not because I love Hans Zimmer or because I was amazed by the masterpiece of 'Stranger', but because of the complexity of the music. This annoying sound famously composed to hype to tension behind Heath Ledger's Joker was no ordinary music. 

That simple sound took Zimmer more than a week to record. Recorded with Cello and Guitar and few other instruments, removing certain frequencies which create the noise, modulating few other frequencies - this was no ordinary feat by Zimmer. And its totally disappointing to hear a local composer copying it with absolutely no pain at all. 

The video below will give you an idea of how much of hard work Zimmer went through to record the track (6:27).

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa Songs

Vinnaithanndi Varuvaayaa is the first album by A.R. Rahman for Goutham Menon. Its too early to say this but this could be the best album of the year. ARR proved to be versatile again. The songs are unique and original. It really amazes me on how ARR creates such unique songs even after 18 yrs of composing.


Omana Penne
A very beautiful romantic song. Melodious and the chorus is catchy. The song is calm throughout and it is one of the top songs of the album.

Anbil Avan
A nice dance beat song. Quite catchy! You will enjoy after repeated listening.

Vinnathaandi Varuvaayaa
I'm not a fan of this song but this is another master-piece of ARR. The chords used in this song is totally unique.

Hosanna
Starts as a lonely single but turns up into a heppy tune. My most favorite song of the album. The opening line is very strong. And what else to comment on Blaaze's rap??? The guitar strumming makes all the difference between the heppy part and the romantic part of the song.

Kannukkul Kannai
The Violin intro is really impressive. I have heard many tamil songs of the similar genre but none of them had been good enough. The difference was in the stereo rhythm and the violin intro that made the song more interesting to listen to.

Mannipaya
Another best romantic from ARR undoubtedly. The two unique tunes for the same line 'Oru naal sirithen...' shows the versatility of ARR. Using Thirukural as a stanza is purely original and adds up to the meaning.

Aaromale
ARR is known for composing out of the league tunes for marriage related songs like Maangalyam (Alai Paayuthe) and Kummi Adi (Sillunu Oru Kaadhal). Here is another one. Would anyone think of composing a powerful tune for marriage related song??? The lyrics is in malayalam but when I read through the translation the lyrics sounded equally powerful.

Altogether I feel this is the best tamil album ARR has composed in quite sometime.

B'lore Trip

Me and my friends (Hari, Rohan and Kavin) had planned to have a holiday trip every year starting from '09. But it remained as a plan. Last month I had to go to B'lore for my cousin's 10th b'day party. As Ro was totally bored he decided to join me. Later we convinced Hari too (Kav was in US and he couldn't join). And hence our the trip plan began (even though a year later).

It was a 4-day trip and we decided to cover B'lore and Mysore (Even though 4 days wasn't enough). We boarded the train on 22nd night. Our berth wasn't confirmed, it was only RAC. So we had to share the berth and we couldn't sleep properly that night.

23rd Jan:

We reached B'lore in the morning. The climate was freakishly cold and we were waiting for our auto (a family friend in b'lore booked an auto for us for the entire day). We went went straight to my uncle's house, had breakfast, and made a huge plan for the day and began our journey. We first visited a place called 'Iskcon', a society for the disciples of Lord Krishna. It was a good place to visit whether or not you are a devotee. We then went to 'Sankey Tank', a large tank where boating is available. Unfortunately it was closed. It was noon already. Our next plan was to the museum but we were so tired that we decided to bunk it. We then went to the planetarium. There were a lot of interesting science experiments. We then went for the planetarium show and the funniest part is that all three of us slept off. We realized that we were too tired and so we had lunch in a restaurant and went back to my uncle's place and slept for three hours.

After a good sleep, we went to visit the musical fountain. It was nice in the first few mins but then it was all repetitive. We were about to visit the 'Vidhan Soudha', when the auto broke-down. We paid the auto and walked to the MG Road. It is the best place to spend time for any youngster in India. The road is full of bars, pubs, coffee shops and restaurants. We spent the entire evening there trying out food we never had before. 

24th Jan:

It was the party day (cousin's 10yr bday party). Ro decided to visit his grandmother in the morn, while me and Hari went for a walk around the place, promising my uncle that we'll be back on time for the party. Me and Hari walked and walked and we were surprised that we reached on time for the party. The cake was ready and the b'day boy was sitting the b'day hat. But everyone were staring at us. Only when we went inside we realized that the party had already begun (Ro was back only after the party finished). The rest of the afternoon passed by Hari and me scaring my niece with a party snow.

At dusk when everyone left, Hari, Ro and I decided to visit the 'Forum Mall'. We spent the entire evening in the mall looking around various shops and beautiful girls .

25th Jan:

 We took a bus to Srirangapatnam in the morning. It was a 3-hour journey from B'lore. We spent the entire time making jokes, having fun and snapping pictures of everything we came across. We were planning to go to 'Balmuri Falls'. We reached Srirangapatnam in the afternoon and we asked for an auto who asked for Rs. 400. We decided to ask someone if there was a bus that leads there. One guy asked us to take a bus to a place he called, 'pompus', and another bus to another destination and a 4km walk. We got into the bus but the conductor was staring at us when we asked for 'pompus'. We repeated our destination another 4 times and there was no reaction from him. Then a guy next to us corrected it as 'Pump House'. It was hilarious.

On the way to the falls we found a restuarant called, "The New Inchara Hotel". The new Inchara fed us some tasty food after which we went to the falls. After the long walk the surprise was awaiting. It wasn't the falls we were expecting. The height of the falls was barely up to my waist.

We spent some fun time in the falls even though Hari refused to come near the water. After maybe the best evening of the trip we went back to Srirangapatnam and boarded a bus to Mysore. We stayed at another Uncle's place for the night.

26th Jan:

We got up in the morning with absolutely no plan at all. We went to the terrace to catch a glimpse of the sunrise behind the famous 'Chamundi Hills'. Looking at the sunrise we decided to go to the hills. We took a bus to the hill top and spent time looking at the shops and beautiful scenery. We were unhappy with the bus journey since we couldn't catch most of the beautiful scenery spots. When we decided to leave I came up with an idea of walking down and both of them agreed. We walked down the entire 7km. People whom we passed through would certainly have thought,"Who are these jerks walking down the hill" as we were the only ones walking down. After a tiring one and a half hour walk we decided to quit the Tippu Palace and everything else in Mysore and decided to go straight back to B'lore.

It was 3pm when we left Mysore but we reached B'lore only at 8. I have no idea what took so long as there wasn't any traffic. We packed our bags and my uncle dropped us to the station. Again our berth was in RAC and again we had to share the berth.

We didn't visit many places at all as 4 days were too short. But we did enjoy the most. About 70% of the budget was spent on food. The year started really well for all of us and we decided to have such trips every year.