Friday, July 6, 2007

Everyone says vote for Taj Mahal!!

Picture courtesy Kiran Kumar PY, my school buddy

From past few weeks all across India you can hear only one slogan "Vote fot Taj". This is to make Taj Mahal listed in New 7 Wonders of the World. The "Taj" campain hit India by all possible means, be it meetings, advertisements, hoardings, pamphlets, Hot air balloons to body art, exhibitions, stunts and what not. Not to forget emails, Orkut Scrapes and SMS's.

As far as I know there are two ways to vote. One is via Internet and one is via mobile phone. When media and people are giving Patriotic statements to vote for Taj, why is that the mobile phone operators are charging Rs. 3 to Rs 6 for a single SMS to vote for Taj? Where the cost of normal SMS is 50 paisa or 1 rupee.

Isn't this equation supposed to be reverse? i.e., when we are patriotic and want more people to participate in something which will make entire India proud, shouldn’t the cost of voting be less than the normal or at least equal? So who is making profit here on patriotic sentiment? obviously the mobile operators. Also as I know the Government also not doing anything in this part. I cannot blame the Government in this regard because, it itself has lot of problems to be dealt with. At least some initiative would have been good.

Strikingly smaller countries are doing their best to have their name in the New 7 Wonders of the World. Brazil's President Lula de Silva used a radio address to tell people how to vote for Rio's statue of Christ the Redeemer. The government of Peru has opened computer terminals in public plazas to encourage people to vote for the ancient city of Machu Pichu.

According to BBC:

"India has around 170 million mobile phone users and one person in every 50 has access to a personal computer.

But lacklustre voting over the past few months has seen the Taj Mahal get just enough votes to get at the bottom of the top 10 list.

Although some private television channels are now calling upon people to vote, most people are yet to hear about the campaign.

A special composition by ace musician AR Rahman, 'India Unites for the Taj', to drum up support for the monument has come a little too late in the day.

And worst of all, many say, the Indian government remains completely aloof from the campaign."

I am not sure what this means to the country but I am not going to take chances with the National Pride. So, I casted my vote both via internet and mobile phone. So people if you have not voted, vote today by clicking here or send an SMS to 4567 with TAJ in the text.

Do not forget, today is the last date to vote.
The New 7 Wonders of the World will be announced during the Official Declaration ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal on Saturday, July 7, 2007 - 07.07.07.


P.S:
If you are voting via internet please check your email and confirm your vote by clicking on the link and providing the information requested. As soon as you do this, your vote will be counted.

2 comments:

Naveenkanth JR said...

I did that.

Pavan Ashwini said...

The new seven wonders...Are they really?

Lets take a moment and ponder on our actions if we did the right thing by voting for Taj Mahal or by participating in the new Seven wonders.

Few things one should consider:

* New Seven wonders is a private initiative and has nothing to do with UNESCO. This implies that there is no responsible body to oversee the facts behind the probable candidates for the 7 wonders, which should makes us to think whether it is justified in supporting the case.
* Taj Mahal - There are still controversies out there if Taj Mahal was really built by Shah Jahan or not. The facts have not been allowed to see the light. At this time do we want to vote for "Taj - Built by Shah Jahan" and fudge the facts? Atleast if you don't accept that Taj is a shiv temple, please don't blindly support that it is built by Shah Jahan and vote for it. You have not heard the other side of the story yet.
* Statue of Liberty - This one is going to be funny. American national monument, is a gift from the french; the model called upon was of American industrialist's widow Isabella Boyer and face believed to be Frederic Auguste's Mother. How creative is that? I doubt if this statue is any bigger than our Budha in Hussain Sagar. Big wonder?
* Egypt did not participate in this contest because the pyramids are beyond judgement for any private competition like this and weber's self promotion.
* No one in china watched these seven wonders because it wasn't broadcasted at all. This is the kind of support and backing the new 7 wonders contest (should it be a contest?) has.

There are many more points like this that one should think about before acting.

My only request: In this internet information junk world, it becomes more necessary to dig into the facts and act responsibly. If we donot have time to think about it atleast do not promote (by forwarding) without verifying. Our kids should not base their life on false information.

Truth is a pathless land, you have to make your own path.

Lets share our thoughts with fellow citizens and make this world one nation built on 'truth'.

Thank you