I Wonder

That’s right. I often wonder who really architectured the whole concept of seven wonders of the world. Since childhood, we have been told there are seven wonders in the world and that these represent some of the most intriguing and amazing man made/nature evolved phenomenon which have enthralled the human race since ages. But as I started understanding it better, the whole concept of seven wonders of the world is in itself flawed to a great extent. If you dig into it further, you really start wondering as to who officially authorized the initial list of seven wonders of the world which includes places like Stonehenge, Great wall of Chine etc. Then comes the list of seven naturally existing wonders which includes places like Mount Everest, Grand canyon etc. Again there was no consensus as to what really qualifies to be called a wonder and somebody(read media giants like CNN/BBC etc) just came up with a consolidated list and published them on their media channels. The last straw came when I heard about a supposedly worldwide initiative wherein an organization invited popular votes from the world audience and asked them to vote for their favourite wonders of the world as percieved by them. Well it seems our very own Taj Mahal could make it to the final 7 but I was not too impressed with the overall exercise as it lacked credibility and transparency.

 Alright enough of that ‘what is right/what is wrong’ sermons. My point here was I have been fascinated with this whole seven wonders of the world thing and always used to wonder if I would ever get to witness atleast one of them. Well, the good news is or rather I can claim that I have witnessed a few of the so called wonders of the world and somehow tempted to draw a comparison between them just so to prove that apples can be compared with oranges!! So far I got to see the Grand Canyon, the Niagara falls and our very own the Taj. Let me write a few lines on each one of them and then we get to the comparison mode –

1)   Grand Canyon – Just one word folks – Truly Majestic(well, that’s 2 words I know). This happened when I was on my first US trip though I wasn’t really that excited to witness the wonder. I mean I had read about it a lot but being a part of high school text book syllabi, it kind of kills the excitement I guess. It’s like whatever you read during high school years was pure bookish and never meant to exist in reality. Well then there I was right at the edge of the wonder itself literally speaking. One look at the wonder and you are like ‘what the hell!!’, ‘what really happened here’ and you never get a chance to put your jaw back in its normal position. The first look at the Canyon sends shivers down your spine and makes you wonder how could such a thing ever happened on planet ‘Earth’. The gorge never ends when you look down and never ceases to amuse you when you look up. The scientific explanation is that the Colorado river was responsible for cutting the earth that deep as if somebody had just cut a full size cake. The bottom most point of the Grand Canyon is around 1.8 km deep, you might as well think of catching a cab to reach that deep! It’s almost 6 years that I witnessed the wonder and I still can recall the visuals so vividly. I still doubt if something of that scale can be done by a simple stream of flowing river.

2)   Niagara Falls – This was during my second trip to the US with wify accompanying me. The high point of this trip was that I drove all the way to the Niagara falls which is a good 6 hours drive one way. And we had to be back the same day which makes it 12 hours of drive in a 24 hours day! But as I discovered later, it was worth the efforts. Absolutely mesmerizing and extremely gigantic is how I would describe this wonder. The sheer amount of water flowing through the fall makes you wonder why we still have water shortage in our home ! The fall it seems gets frozen during the winter season when the temperature reaches sub zero levels. I wish I could witness that as well. The Niagara fall ride called ‘Maid of the Mist’ was an experience itself wherein you are taken right at the bottom of the fall in the middle of wild streams making you feel as if the boat you are riding on is about to overturn. 

 3)  Taj Mahal – ‘Sublime’ and ‘Pure’ are the epithets I could think of while witnessing the monument the first time. Absolute beauty, you just go breathless at its first sight. The legend has it that the emperor Shahjahan was besotted by his 17 year old cousin Mumtaj Mahal and just couldn’t take his eyes off of her. He married her eventually and had 14 kids in as many years it seems (please don’t analyze this information in any greater details as it has led me to a lot of unhealthy questions which I am unable to find in spite of being an ‘adult’!!). So when the queen was gone in his life, the emperor thought to immortalize her memories in what we now know as the ‘Taj Mahal’. The saying ‘Love is in the air’ actually gets personified when you visit the wonder and invariably makes you hold the hands of your beloved as you get completely captivated and mesmerized by the moment’s tenderness.

Now coming to the comparison part – Though all the 3 wonders are sheer magic to your eyes in their own ways, I personally found Grand Canyon having much more profound effect on my psyche than the other 2. Probably it has to do with ‘Fear’ factor that is synonymous with the Canyon and it seems human psychology registers and reacts more strongly to fear factor than beauty factor which is more prominent with the other 2 wonders viz. the Niagara and the Taj. But again, this is purely speaking from human psychology angle. From every other perspective, all the 3 are equals or incomparable and have their own aura so to speak. I would like to conclude saying that even though beauty does lie in the eyes of the beholder, the official/unofficial wonders of the world provide a new meaning to the definition of term ‘beauty’ and have to be witnessed in person to believe that wonders do happen.