Indian Jans and the Saving of the Taj
Apparently, I'm one of the few million reasons why the Taj Mahal is not going to be one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. The Times of India puts it as follows: "the Taj is slowly slipping out of the reckoning because Indians couldn’t be bothered enough to vote". That's right, blame it on web-connected lazy-arses like me.The campaign to "unite for the Taj" has made the news in the last couple of weeks, A.R.Rahman has composed a ditty to boost publicity of the event, email campaigns are going out, and inevitably some landed in my inbox. So do I care whether the Shah Jahan paean to romance has a podium finish? - nope, I don't.
How does it matter? The Taj Mahal is easily one of the most visited monuments in the world, and lack of inclusion on some list is hardly going to affect its status as a must-visit. BTW, the compilation of the list has taken 7 years - why should something as simple as such a list take so long and be subject to mass voting? Perhaps they could merely take the average tourist figures for each monument and rank.
Judging by the fact that only 1 out of the previous 7 wonders is still standing, it's probably for the best that the Taj stays out - there's no good coming out one being on a jinxed list as that. The worst ramification of the new 7 Wonders announcement could be a DVD re-release of "Jeans", with Prashant and Mrs. Baby B, showing us around the latest winners. BTW, this is a serious indictment of Indian IT skills: what happened to those scripts that last put us in this Top Ten?
More seriously, the facts that the Taj is rapidly yellowing, industries continue to pollute the Yamuna at the back, and that Mayawati might not be implicated in the Taj corridor case should be doing the rounds. Here, I confess to my guilt: I am one of the many million reasons why the Taj could be slowly slipping out of existence because Indians couldn't be bothered to do anything about it.
P.S.: Why hasn't someone asked us to vote for the Taj so that at least one remnant from the glories of the Hindu past makes it to the top-7?
P.P.S.: A different list at the World Monuments Fund
5 comments:
Actually, the rate at which the minarets are tilting inwards, the Taj should be included in the list - going by the fact that 6 of the earlier 7 are not existing anymore.
Haven't been to anything else that is in the same league so I'm not sure if my comment is valid but the Taj is really a wonderful monument.
True. Instead of just voting, we should go and visit it before it disappears.
It is just awesome - the way it fills the eyes the first time you see it. Which also means that the other monuments around the world in its league must be quite breathtaking too.
hmm.. reminded me of our Agra visit and all the related stories, Ramanand! :-)
Daemon: indeed!
I was awestruck when I first saw the Taj. Photographs don't do justice to how majestic the Taj actually is. One feels like just sitting there and keep looking at it. It fills your field of vision...
Maybe the new seven wonders of the world could also include Googleplex, the Microsoft Seattle campus and the Xerox PARC :)
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