Seven Wonders Re-listing

New 7 wonders. Huh! Why? Since school days the seven wonders of the world were of great marvel and curiosity .. for me and I guess for many others alike as well. Remembering the names for the upcoming annual exams were most often jumbled up, quite unlike remembering the seven colours of the rainbow.

As a kid, About the Hanging Gardens, I had made a mental picture of a garden hanging out of nowhere in air. The structures in ancient Rome and Greece had forever been tourist attractors making one wonder how could human hands build such massive sites. The fact is now apart from the Pyramids, none of the old wonders are still standing. Others are just wonders. You don’t get to see them. Out here in our soil, I would always wonder as to why erecting the magnificent structure called the Taj Mahal took such a long time…21 years..gosh! Not to mention that behind most of these wonderful structures had been a tyrannical emperor or ruler or king who enslaved and best utilized human resource. And today we admire those constructions. Surely these constructions deserve the title – “wonders”.

And now, there is this ongoing campaign to re-list the seven wonders of the world afresh. Not a bad idea. Keeping pace with time..it seems. And this has been launched by the New 7 Wonders Society, a swiss group. After a series of selections and nominations, the final list was out with 21 sites. The final results are due to be announced on 7th of July ’07 the world over. In this time, millions and millions of people around the world are casting their votes for the new 7 wonders. Votes can be cast through SMS or through the internet.

Competition is fierce. The sites in the list of 21 are getting massive encouragement and popularity to be voted from their respective regions. For example, the President of Brazil addressed on the radio telling the people how to vote for Rio’s Statue of Christ. In Peru, computer terminals had been opened up in public places by the governments encouragement for the people to vote for the Machu Picchu, an ancient city in Peru. But the only structure from India, the Taj Mahal hasn’t gained much votes yet. I see two reasons to this sorry plight. Either its ignorance of the common public or lack of enthusiasm. Until 3-4 weeks back I also had no idea about this campaign until I got a mail. Thats ignorance. Few of my friends who got the same mail didn’t bother to act on it. Thats lack of enthusiasm.

Be it whichever reason, its about losing shine and pride for one of the remarkable structures that still stands beside the banks of Yamuna. I have not seen any media networks enlightening the people about this worldwide voting campaign. Just last week I happened to read in a newspaper that the Indian media agency responsible for promoting it are working out ways to bring it forward. But the deadline is nearing very soon and we would be needing more than 2 billion votes according to an estimate. As always is seen with the Indian ways, people would start rushing at the nick of time (already used to this nature in the Indian cricket team). I hope the government make out efforts in igniting the minds and not keep mum or just shy away. And hopefully the dormant minds of those who have an idea of this but have not yet voted cast their votes soon enough.

I cast my vote for 7 wonders where of course the Taj is checked in the New 7 Wonders and the Vote for Taj websites. I had also exclusively voted for the same by sending an SMS to 4567.

To add to this, after voting through the India Info website I got a certificate from the website. So folks, get into voting mode.

Technorati Tags: Seven wonders, 7 wonders, New 7 wonders, Seven, Wonders, Taj Mahal, Taj, India, World, Pyramids, Hanging Gardens, Vote, Vote for Taj, SMS, 7th July, 7th July 2007, 07072007, Certificate, Certificate of Recognition