Fedex finally delivers

After a long time I saw a good tennis match today. Federer beats Monfils to enter the final of French Open 2008. Although Federer won, but not before local lad asking him many questions. But that's what makes Federer a champion, he wasn't completely in his elements, he wasn't really on song but still managed to win the match.

Now that Nadal has already made it to the finals, it will surely be a great contest to watch. Really looking forward to the finals. :)

Trip to Old Delhi - I

Last week me, Harish & Sudhir went to Old Delhi. We took Delhi Metro to get to Chandni Chowk, the heart of Old Delhi. The idea was to visit weekly book market in Dariyaganj & Paratha (a kind of Indian bread stuffed with different vegetables & stuffings)shops in Parathe Waali Gali.
After getting out of metro station, we took one 'Rickshaw' to get to Dariyaganj.

This book market in Dariyaganj is very old & famous for its street book shops. This market has been there for more than 100 years I guess. Here you could find almost all kinds of books that you can think of & books that you cant even think of. Though I could not find anything for myself in the limited time that we had. Though I had nothing specific in my mind, but I did make a concious effort to find a book on Urdu Poet "Meer Taqi Meer". Just to mention here Meer is one the greatest Urdu poet of all times, he was from Delhi & lived here in late seventeenth century. Even the greatest Urdu poet ever lived, "Mirza Ghalib" kept a very high regard for Meer & once wrote,

रेखते के तुम्ही उस्ताद नहीं हो ग़ालिब
कहते हैं अगले ज़माने में कोई मीर भी था !!

(you are not the only master of Urdu poetry 'Ghalib', they say that in past, there lived some 'Meer' as well).

Coming back to our spree, after browsing through various book shops it was time to have lunch. So we headed towards parathe waali gali, we went in a famous shop that has been there since 1889. They are very famous & various photographs (showing some very big politicians, movie stars, bureaucrats ) & news paper cuttings posted on the walls only amplify this fact. As far as food is concerned, they make paratha almost out of every vegetable thing. They have around 30 different kinds of parathas on the menu. We had some 5-6 different types of them coupled with lassi (sweetened curd).

Food was good & then it was time for some roaming around....

To be continued............

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Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken.

~~ William Shakespeare in "Romeo & Juliet"~~

My gTalk status for the day

Suffer or triumph; be the hammer or the anvil.

~~ Goethe ~~

My gTalk status for the day

"There is magic in fighting battles beyond endurance."

~~ Morgan Freeman in 'Million Dollar Baby' ~~

Hurray, India beat Australia in the first of best of three finals at SCG today. And as always it was a pleasure to see little master batting like a champion.

There was something else too & not so pleasing, my PC's Windows crashed last night [:(]. I was actually updating my IE from ver. 6 to 7, that caused something to crash my Windows Explorer. Now since I'll be busy till friday due to my work, it seems that only on next weekend I'll be able to bring my system back to life.

PicLens For Firefox

I found this excellent add-on Firefox called "PicLens", its an add-on for online image viewing. Images are displayed in a 3-D wall interface that lets you zoom, drag & click through the pictures. It works for many image search engines like google, flickr, Photobucket etc.
I must say its an excellent offering from its makers, online image viewing will never be the same again. Thats why I love Firefox, it gives me so much freedom, so much to choose from. Firefox rocks... :)

This add-on can be found at

Install PicLens for Firefox

Some screen shots ;)

My gTalk status for the day

Hate has a reason for everything. Love is unreasonable.
~~ V. Raiuhes Ahaefvthe ~~

My gTalk status for the day

कितने ऐश उडाते होंगे, कितने इतराते होंगे.
जाने कैसे लोग वो होंगे, जो उसको भाते होंगे.
~~ जौन एलिया ~~

My gTalk status for the day

If you are going through hell, keep going.
~~ Winston Churchill ~~

My gTalk status for the day

And think not you can direct the course of love; for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

~~ Khalil Gibran ~~

My gTalk status for the day

I stay online during day time using gTalk. Like every other instant messenger, gTalk also support custom status messages. I usually use quotations or a piece of Hindi/Urdu poetry as my status message. So I thought why not blog my status daily, this way I can share those great thoughts with everybody and I'll also have a archive of my previously used status messages.

My gtalk status for today was,

आदमी आदमी से मिलता है,
दिल मगर कम किसी से मिलता है!!
~~ जिगर ~~

Super Saturday :)

Yesterday I saw three movies back to back, and it was quite phenomenal in many ways :D. First of all sparing this much of time for movies has really been a luxury lately, second I really didn't know that I could sit around for a such a long time and third it was these three great movies itself that really made my weekend rocking.

First of them was "Once upon a time in the west". Its a 1968 western classic directed by legendary Sergio Leone. It is one of those films that can easily make anyone feel that they have just seen a masterpiece. It has everything excellent screenplay, exceptional acting, great locations and not to mention masterful direction. And it also features one of the most sensuous actress I have ever seen, Claudia Cardinale.

Second was "No country for old men", and I must say it might just live up to all the Oscar expectations associated with it. Its a good movie, really well made. Though it might not cater to everybody's taste, due to excessive violence and blood being shown throughout. Tommy Lee Jones has delivered good, especially later in the second half. But the its Javier Bardem that really stole the show, he's excellent in the role of ruthless hit-man.

Third movie was "Across the universe", and it was a refreshing experience. This film is different, quite far from the usual genre. Its a love story set in sixties, woven in to several other significant things of that time (Vietnam War for instance). Its pretty much like our Bollywood films, Beatles songs are used to carry the story forward (though most of them are cover versions). But cinematic quality is far beyond the reach of average bollywood flick, at some points it gets very artistic .

Welcome 2008

The year 2008 has started, and for no concrete reasons I am pretty hopeful about it. When I say I am hopeful, it also suggests that there are some expectations & aspirations to couple with. I can say this on my personal experience, last year I had no expectations, no aspirations to begin with. So as to say I didn't hope for anything. I lived entire year like a dry leaf on a blowing breeze.

As far as my expectations & aspirations go, I have decided something. Instead of chasing each one of them disjointedly, I am just going to focus on one target. To do full justice to my capabilities, to do everything I do with all my heart. This way I will be a better person all-round.