npm (node package manager) timing out

I am not ale to install any module with npm. It just times out

C:\Users\athakur>npm install express -g
npm http GET http://registry.npmjs.org/express
npm http GET http://registry.npmjs.org/express
npm http GET http://registry.npmjs.org/express
npm ERR! network connect ETIMEDOUT
npm ERR! network This is most likely not a problem with npm itself
npm ERR! network and is related to network connectivity.
npm ERR! network In most cases you are behind a proxy or have bad network settin
npm ERR! network
npm ERR! network If you are behind a proxy, please make sure that the
npm ERR! network 'proxy' config is set properly.  See: 'npm help config'

npm ERR! System Windows_NT 6.1.7601
npm ERR! command "C:\\Users\\athakur\\Softwares\\NodeJS\\\\node.exe" "C:\\Users\
kur\\Softwares\\NodeJS\\node_modules\\npm\\bin\\npm-cli.js" "install" "express"
npm ERR! cwd C:\Users\athakur
npm ERR! node -v v0.10.29
npm ERR! npm -v 1.4.9
npm ERR! syscall connect
npm ERR! code ETIMEDOUT
npm ERR! errno ETIMEDOUT
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in:
npm ERR!     C:\Users\athakur\npm-debug.log
npm ERR! not ok code 0

I am not behind any proxy. Ping works just fine

C:\Users\athakur>ping registry.npmjs.org

    Pinging a.sni.fastly.net [103.245.222.162] with 32 bytes of data:
    Reply from 103.245.222.162: bytes=32 time=442ms TTL=53
    Reply from 103.245.222.162: bytes=32 time=590ms TTL=53
    Reply from 103.245.222.162: bytes=32 time=538ms TTL=53
    Reply from 103.245.222.162: bytes=32 time=656ms TTL=53

    Ping statistics for 103.245.222.162:
        Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
    Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
        Minimum = 442ms, Maximum = 656ms, Average = 556ms

I tried running npm config set registry http://registry.npmjs.org/ and checked the same is reflected in .npmrc file under my user dir. I am not able to understand why it times out. Any suggestions?