Wake up call for all Tamilians

With the announcement of the New Seven Wonders of the World, every Indian has a reason to smile. Our Taj Mahal has fought a tough 'competition' and has been elected as one of the New Seven Wonders. One thing I have been wondering about is what makes something a wonder. Is it the sheer architectural brilliance or the popularity among the voters? Take the Christ Redeemer as an example. It neither has the 'beauty of the Taj' (Which every Indian swears to or atleast that is what the media says. Moreover, I am sure that half the Indians who had voted for the Taj had never seen been to it.) nor is it as long as the Great Wall of China (its length overshadowed probably only by the number of nominations it would have received from the Word's most populated nation). If the Christ Redeemer could be a finalist, then I am sure we can nominate many more from India that can match it stone-by-stone, unless otherwise the event organizers had a rule that there has to be only one entry from each nation.

India, I am sure, can offer few more architectural wonders than the stereotyped image of the Mausoleum named the Taj Mahal (RSS might beg to differ though, especially with a section of the society claiming that the Taj Mahal was not built by Shah Jahan but rather acquired by him from a Hindu King Jai Singh, and that the Taj originally was a Vedic temple). For example, take the majestic Thiruvalluvar statue at Kanyakumari. I wonder in what way this statue is inferior compared to the Christ Redeemer. In fact, it matches up to it in many ways and even overshadows it in many aspects.

	Christ Redeemer	Thiruvalluvar Statue
Statue Height	30m	29m (95 ft)
Pedestal Height	8m	11.5 m(38 ft)
Total Height	38m	40.5 m (133 ft)
Weight	700 tonnes	7000 tonnes
Cost	$250,000 (in the year 1931)	$1,519,097 (INR 6.14 crores)

The Thiruvalluvar statue is 2 meters taller, weighs ten times more and considering the inflation over 70 years from the time the Christ Redeemer was constructed, it has costed us less. I am not sure what are the ideologies the Redeemer stands for (if that ever is a reason for being nominated as a World Wonder), but our Thiruvalluvar statue stands for a lot as one gathers from this article.

I visited Kanyakumari last September and I was awestruck by the Thriuvalluvar statue (No, I am not kiddding here). I admit that I was not poignantly moved by the statue per se. But the location was breath taking. The point where it stands is probably one of the roughest seas you will encounter in life. One can get to see beautiful sunsets with the statue in the foreground. And the winds are so strong that one has to be careful so as not to be blown away. After all this structure had withstood the monstrosity of the Tsunami in 2004.

I am sure not many are aware of the fact that our very own Madurai Meenakshi Temple was nominated in the preliminary rounds. Had every Tamilian voted atleast twice for Madurai Meenakshi Temple, we would have easily got more than 14 crore votes for it and we would be having it in the final list now.
So it stands to conclude that we Tamils have lost out due to our inaction. The Champion of the Tamil Classes Dr.Kalaignar has to take up the cause of Tamils and ensure that Tamils do not lose out on this parade of pride on the Global front. Such assertations of Tamilian superiority can only facilitate the declaration of Tamil not only as a national language but also as a Global Language.

Disclaimers:
1. The author has nothing personally against the Christ Redeemer or the Taj Mahal. He belongs to the group of people who have never been to any of the Wonders.
2. The author does not claim to be a Tamil partisan and disassociates himself from any hardcore groups.
3. The author refuses to have the honour of giving the 'Champions of Tamilians' title to our beloved Chief Minister. The media has already done that and deserves full praise for it.