CHENNAI
maestro A R Rahman, the first Indian to win two Oscars, returned to his home city — Chennai to a rousing welcome by his fans and friends in the wee hours of Thursday (February 26).The 43-year-old musician, who won the Oscars for Best Original Music and Best Song for his compositions in "Slumdog Millionaire" at the 81st Academy Awards, arrived in Chennai from Dubai by an Emirates Airways flight at around 2.30 am.
A large number of people, who waited at the airport for the ‘Mozart of Madras’, cheered him up as he emerged out of the international terminal to the beats of drum specialist Sivamani and his troupe.
Kerala’s "Kottu Melam" (percussion instrument) artists gave a performance on behalf of the Indian Airlines.
On behalf of the state government, Tamil Nadu information minister Parithi Ilamvazhuthi received Rahman with a bouquet at the airport terminal.
A visibly happy Rahman waved at the crowd acknowledging their support before leaving for his home.
After reaching his home town, the music genius spoke exclusively to times Now and expressed joy and said that there were more things to come, this is just the beginning for him.
';sldsh=1; var stindex=100; var stp=150; var taglen=0; var tmp; var tagcheck = new Array("div","span","br","font","a"); var storycontent = document.getElementById("storydiv").innerHTML; var firstpara = storycontent.substring(0,storycontent.toLowerCase().indexOf("
")).toLowerCase();
function findptt(cnt){
zz++;
if(zz == 10)return;
var xxx=-1,yyy=-1;
var ccnt = cnt;
for(ii=0; ii < tagcheck.length; ii++){
xxx = ccnt.indexOf("<"+tagcheck[ii]);
if(xxx != -1 && xxx < 150){
stp = stp;
var tmp1 = ccnt.substring(ccnt.indexOf("<"+tagcheck[ii]),ccnt.length);
yyy = tmp1.indexOf(">");
if(yyy != -1){
taglen += yyy;
stp = stp + yyy;
yyy+=1;
}
break;
taglen = taglen + tagcheck[ii].length + 3;
}
}
if(xxx == -1 || xxx >= 150){
return;
}else{
var tmp2 = ccnt.substring(0,xxx);
tmp2 += ccnt.substring((yyy+xxx),ccnt.length);
findptt(tmp2);
}
}findptt(firstpara);
if(firstpara.length <= taglen + 150){
stp = firstpara.length;
}
var tmpminus=0;
var tmpcon = storycontent.substring(0,stp);
if(tmpcon.lastIndexOf("<") < tmpcon.lastIndexOf(">")){
}else{
tmpminus = tmpcon.length - tmpcon.lastIndexOf("<");
}
stp = stp - tmpminus;
tmpcon = storycontent.substring(0,stp);
stp = tmpcon.lastIndexOf(' ');
tmpcon = storycontent.substring(0,stp) + bellyaddiv + storycontent.substring(stp,storycontent.length);
if(sldsh == 0 && doweshowbellyad != 1){}else{
document.getElementById("storydiv").innerHTML = tmpcon;
}
wid='541'; im='460'; var b1=""; if(cnt > 1){ if(wid=='1024') b1 = '
'; else b1 = '
'; } if(wid=='1024') var b2 = '