'Jai Ho!' say Indians on cyberspace

New Delhi, Feb 23 (IANS) Cyberspace is buzzing with the Oscars, and music maestro A.R. Rahman seems to be leading here too! Even as he is in Los Angeles attending the ceremony, his website has been updated and boasts of his being the first Indian to bag two Academy Awards the same night.

In the rest of the cyber world, it's an almost unanimous "Jai Ho" - as people's status on social networking sites and chat lists has been set to these words from the Oscar winning song in the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" since early Monday.

"India! Jai Ho!" screamed Bangalore-based student Vaishali Baruah's chat message on Yahoo messenger after it was announced that the movie had won eight Oscars.

"It's an incredible achievement! Bagging eight of the 10 Oscar nominations is no mean deal...and the icing on the cake is that three out of that have been won by Indians! It's a truly Jai Ho moment for all of us," she said.

At the 81st Academy Awards, "Slumdog Millionaire" won for best film, best director, best original score, best original song, best adapted screenplay, best cinematography, best sound mixing and best editing.

Of the eight, A.R. Rahman won the Oscar for the best original score and for the best original song "Jai Ho" alongwith lyricist Gulzar. Sound designer Resul Pookutty shared the Oscar for the best sound mixing along with Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke.

Enthralled with the Oscar glory, advertising executive Sachin Jaiswal updated his profile message on Facebook, a social networking website, and wrote: "It doesn't get any bigger than this".

"You know a lot of people have been saying that why this obsession with Oscars and do we really need the Oscars to tell us that we are good. But oh well...the fact remains that this is one of the world's most revered recognitions and we have won three of them!

"And look at A.R. Rahman - he truly deserved a recognition like this. How can one ever get over his compositions in movies like 'Taal', 'Bombay' and 'Roja'? Rahman's the best," Jaiswal said.

Rahman's website, www.arrahman.com, has updated his achievement as well. "Rahman is the first Indian to win two Oscars. 'Slumdog Millionaire' swept the Oscars and won eight out of the nine categories it was nominated in," the update reads.

Gushing at the acceptance speeches of the Indian winners, Anita Sharma, a student said: "Both Rahman and Pookutty were just so humble while accepting the awards - no overacting, over reacting like many other celebrities do when they receive an award.

"I especially found Rahman's acceptance speech, in which he thanks God in Tamil, very touching. We are proud of our musical geniuses. Jai Ho!" she added.

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