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The Seven-Wonder itch
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Come now, reel off the Seven Wonders of the World. Are you er-ing and ah-ing? No wonder. Every once so often, the wish list undergoes a metamorphosis, despairs BHUMIKA K.
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Have you been one of those on the mailing list of a friend who's sending imploring chain emails asking you to visit the site and put the Taj Mahal on the world map of wonders? -- Photo: AP
DO YOU know the Seven Wonders of the World? If you just said `Aha!' very confidently but stopped counting after the first three or four, join the club. You then try to recall from those school textbooks. Or look up the Net.
Now imagine the kind of confusion school kids go through when the teacher asks them such a funda question, or worse still, assigns a project.
So who has the right answers? What are the right answers? Are there right answers at all? Is that ode to romance, the Taj Mahal, on the list or is it only a patriotic Indian's wishful thinking?
That's a whole string of questions with a big question mark trapping them all.
Ancient wonders
It is usually understood that the Seven Wonders refer to the architectural wonders of the ancient world — the Pyramids of Egypt, the Lighthouse at Alexandria on the Pharos Island, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Temple of Artemis, the Statue of Zeus, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, and the Colossus of Rhodes. Says Bangalore-based quizmaster Avinash Mudaliar: "I would definitely accept only the Seven Ancient Wonders as the right answer in a quiz." Most encyclopaedias too stick to the Seven Ancient Wonders.
But in this string, only the pyramids survive. And we can't for the life of us pronounce most of the other wonders, leave alone young schoolchildren!
Make your list
As centuries sped by, bringing changes in standards of architecture and aesthetics, the Wonders list kept morphing too. So you had on the list edifices such as the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal of Agra, the Statue of Liberty, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Eiffel Tower, the Angkor Wat temple complex in Cambodia, the Petronas Towers of Kuala Lumpur, and so on. The natural wonders included the Grand Canyon, Mount Everest, the Great Barrier Reef, the Fjordlands, Niagara Falls, and many more.
Clearly, there is no constant. And no single list has ever won unanimous approval among historians, artists, architects and other soi disant decision-makers. As with all things of beauty, the verdict lies in the eyes of the beholder. And, wink, wink, it also helps a country's tourism industry to have a "wonder" on the circuit and a respectable entry in Lonely Planet.
In consonance with modern life, one is spoilt for choice here too. You can choose from a list of Seven Modern Wonders of the World, Medieval Wonders, Forgotten Wonders, Natural Wonders, Architectural Wonders and other newfound lists.
Or you can simply make your own list.
On the block
So how about compiling a new agreeable list? That's something Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber is attempting, through his The New 7 Wonders Foundation where the "global society comes together to choose the New 7" on the Internet through a voting system.
Have you been one of those on the mailing list of a friend who's sending imploring chain emails asking you to visit the site and put the Taj Mahal on the world map of wonders?
Which will be the chosen one? When we last checked out their website (http://cms.n7w.com) the top nominations of the week — Indians hold your breath — were the Madurai Meenakshi Temple, the Taj Mahal and the Golden Temple of Amritsar — in that order! Ahem! Looks like we Indians have a lot of pride. Either that or we spend too much time on the Internet!
Other current nominations on the site include the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, the Alhambra Granada in Spain, the Potala Palace in Tibet, the Great Wall of China, the ancient city of Machu Picchu in Peru, the Hagia Sophia in Turkey, the Colosseum at Rome in Italy, the pyramids in Mexico, Timbuktu in Mali, Stonehenge in the U.K., Moscow's Red Square, and yes, Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu and the Gomateshwara monolith in Sravanabelagola, Karnataka, India!
An expert N7W panel is being assembled to assist in the shortlisting of nominees. The panel will choose just 21 candidates to go forward to the final stages of the competition. And finally on January 1, 2007, the new list will be announced. No doubt it will be greeted by howls of protest from assorted corners and communities.
Remember the BBC online poll for the world's best songs that surprisingly threw up a Tamil number beating cult classics to the collective groan of music buffs? Going by past experience, how reliable are Net polls? Who's voting? And, most importantly, who really decides what we can all wonder about?
WONDERSTRUCK
"There are Old Wonders and there are New Wonders. The Old Wonders are ancient monuments and the new ones are the ones such as the Eiffel Tower. There is a big confusion with the Taj. That should be resolved."
Gargi
Homemaker
"The Taj Mahal should definitely be one of the Seven Wonders of the World. I think it was there on the original list. I don't know why it is not there now."
Aditya
Student
"I am certain that the Taj Mahal should be one of the Seven Wonders of the World. This is cheating, man. We are a country of a billion people."
Niranjan
Student
Some of the commonly listed Modern Wonders of the World
Channel Tunnel (England and France)
CN Tower (Toronto)
Empire State Building (New York)
Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco)
Itaipu Dam (Brazil/Paraguay)
Netherlands North Sea Protection Works (Holland)
Panama Canal (Panama)
The Clock Tower or Big Ben (London, England)
Hoover Dam (Arizona/Nevada, U.S.A.)
Mount Rushmore National Memorial (South Dakota, U.S.A.)
The Suez Canal (Egypt)
The Sydney Opera House (Australia)
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