Pirates, Sugar Free & Ghalib

Another weekend gone and few more movies are marked out from “Must Watch List”. Was it different or was it like any other weekend, depends on what side of mine is known to you :) The best way to put it up would be : From the new age multiplexes to old world charm.

Friday night was spent in watching a friendly match between England and Brazil. Beckham’s return to England team and Brazil's flair was good enough reasons to watch the match till 2:30 in night. A late surge by Brazil in the injury time resulted in a draw, which was a fair result after England took a lead through Terry header from Becks freekick.

Saturday felt like a kind of weekend, which I used to have in Chennai. A hot and humid day, with couple of movies and excellent Rajma Chawal at a friend's place. First off the list was “Cheeni Kum”. Fabulous movie with some witty dialogues, excellent characterization and good acting (Johra Sehgal was just amazing); they should have done away with melodrama in last few minutes. Sounds clichéd but it was zara hatke movie. The second one : Pirates of the Carribean – At world’s end, was a big let down and was bearable just cuz of Jack Sparrow's antics. Seemed like it was made just to have a third part in the series, without a proper script or story in place. No wonder IMDB mentions that they started filming the movie without even a finished script, which is very much unlike Hollywood (though quite a norm in apna bollywood). Till now both the third installments have proven to be damp squib (Spidey and Pirates). I hope the coming ones are much better (Shrek, Ocean etc). By the way, both these movies were seen in the latest multiplexes in the town. After hearing about it for ages, Satyam finally opened at Nehru Place and Waves have opened up at Raja Garden. From my experience, Satyam – Janak Puri and Waves – Noida are the best multiplexes in the town (Satyam is better cuz of good service). So, it was good to see one more branch of these multiplexes at different locations. The new ones are good but old ones are still better with large screens and stadium seating. Satyam is little bit costly too with Rs 160 as a cost of ticket (South Delhi effect :( ) but its better than wasting your money at PVR Saket or Priya (the seats are getting worse day by day here).

Sunday was spent in sleeping around and after lot of deliberation between me and my friend, we paid a visit to Ghalib’s Haveli at Chandni Chowk. The place was in dilapidated state earlier, but now its being maintained by Delhi Govt after it was highlighted by historians and prominent scholars of delhi. If you will ask any Rickshaw walla to take you there, chances are you would be left wondering whether you got down at the right metro station. A samartian, who was hoping to entice us into buying sarees from his shop told us to mention the area rather than just mentioning Ghalib's Haveli. Situated in labyrinthine lane (Qsim Jan Gali) at Ballimaran, this is the place where Ghalib spent last few yrs of his life. The haveli is quite small in area and has couplets written by Ghalib on the wall along with other information & trivia about the poet. Few experimental shots (one you can see at my photoblog), a quick visit for Gianni’s Rabdi Faluda beyond Fatehpuri Masjid and then we took a rickshaw to Lal Quila. It was a lovely evening with a beautiful sky and I was able to get some really nice shots out there. Back to CP by Metro and some time at Central Park followed by a visit to Wills Lifestyle, curtains were down for the weekend.

Sunset at Red Fort

On a different note, it was quite costly weekend because of some repairs done in my still faithful car (suspension, AC, Shockers etc). Its getting hot day by day and I am hating it and not at all looking forward to hot and humid days of July & Aug. Lets hope for a better monsoon. BTW, the best part about the weekend was lots of Tandoori Chicken on Fri and Rajma Chawal on both Sat and Sun :)