What are we building ?
Visited The Gateway of India today. As I stood there with visiting clients who were seeing it for the first time and rapidly clicking pictures I look at the Gateway and then at the old and new Taj. The old Taj which had faced a horrific attack in Nov stood strong and regal . The new Taj in comparison looks dilapidated from outside.
Most of the monuments we visit , cherish , marvel at are structures built 60-100 years ago . Many even older than that . The Gateway , Taj at Mumbai , the Taj Mahal at Agra , the palaces of Rajasthan , temples of South India , the Louvre and Eiffel Tower in Paris....
With all the progress we are supposed to have made as mankind it's worth reflecting why there aren't many (or even several) structures built in the last 20 years that inspire .
2 comments:
years back wen as a youngster i first saw d gateway of india..beautiful taj was n is, just in front..attack or no attack.we have at best built d amazing lotus temple in delhi n nekh chand's rock garden in chandigarh in d recent years gone by..akshardam may also b...have we by any chance shifted 2other forms of expression...paintings of hussain n ela menon,-prose of arundati roy n vikram seth..enterprise of premji n narayanmuthy...d iit's n iim's..wonder if our priorities have changed, while still missing d legacies of yore. .b it taj mahal of agra, ellora n ajanta, madurai n tanjore temples n art forms..like u i wonder..
after writing last night, i pondered..for long buildings were signs 2express 'who is ruling here'..d pyramids n d pharoahs, steeples n d clergy, minarets n d mughals, white house, liberty statue, eiffel tower of d american n french govts..den almost simultaneously came d empire state, chrysler, ge n metro buildings..all spelt power..where then are the buildings of those today who have d power n wealth 2buy nations n own armies?are we building something else? has our expression changed ?
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