July state of mind...

The new 7 Wonders of the World were announced on 070707.

It did not include The Pyramids of Egypt. Enough said.

• The Great Wall of China
• Petra in Jordan
• Brazil's statue of Christ the Redeemer
• Peru's Machu Picchu
• Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid
• The Colosseum in Rome
• India's Taj Mahal

The presence of Brazil's statue of Christ is a reflection of how unreliable the mode of voting was. Millions of people with access to computers and internet is the only reason why it features in the list.

Roger Federer won his 5th straight Wimbledon. And many consider him the greatest player ever - which he will surely become if he actually wins more grand slams in his career. But I beg to differ. For me, my choice for the best tennis player has to be either Pete Sampras, John McEnroe or Andre Agassi. You've gotta go beyond just statistics (win-lose etc ) here. These three players faced (in their careers) what Federer rarely faced - a decent fight and stubborn competition. McEnroe had Jimmy Connors and Bjorn Borg to contend with - followed by a powerful young Boris Becker. Sampras and Agassi had each other - and a score of young short-lived stars who capitalized on the surge of the power game (Power serve/ volley game).

The only one who seems to be giving Federer any competition is Nadal - who I thought held pretty well last night. Hopefully he'll win that title soon.

Sticking to Wimbledon - this year the Women's Chamapion (Venus Williams) won equal prize money as Federer. I think its stupid to pay men and women alike if women play only 2 sets - or maximum 3. Venus for instance was a habit of stir-frying her opponents in 2 sets. Whereas the guys usually battle it out to 4 or 5 sets. Do the women deserve this? Sure, they look like men - and they can play like men too - but last only 3 sets.

Met the super fast Akshay Pratap Singh over the weekend. Consumed his Ceylon Arrack. And enjoyed myself to some fuseball.

Watched a lot of movies - including Transformers (pleasantly surprised!!), Die Hard 4.0 (whatever), Little Children (nice)... and Death Proof (Advanced).

Bought teh 2 CD/1DVD Traveling Wilburys Collection. George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne. Volume 1 is probably one of the best albums of the late 80's.

The LIVE Earth concerts happened on 070707. I enjoyed all the short films in between concerts and the countless 30 sec promos with various celebrities. God, what have we done to our earth? Billions of years of evolution... and its gonna get screwed without repair in the next 100 years. Its scary. I'm suddenly feeling proud that I have not owned a car till date, and that I am really doing my bit to decrease the CO2 and other hazardous contribution to the environment.

Bob Geldof had doubts about the concert's credibility - he said that people already knew about Global warming etc etc. Well,... people also knew about Ethiopian kids in 1985, and unfair trade practices with African countries in 2005. He suddenly came across as a pseud to me. Al Gore is really inspiring.

Aug 22nd is the date I give up the Singapore PR for my Marathi Maanoos citizenship. Honestly can't wait.

This weekend has Dex and Arjun in Singapore. Gonna be fun.