Thursday, April 9, 2009

NDTV's seven (er, make that ten) Wonders of India

Did you follow NDTV's extraordinarily tedious catalogue of India's architectural landmarks (with a few natural sites thrown in for good measure) titled Seven Wonders of India? I presume not, for why would you follow an extraordinarily tedious catalogue of anything? The series began last year, and I watched it for a couple of minutes now and then while channel surfing. After a few weeks spent covering heritage monuments -- shot and edited in the annoying blurry-pan-and-jump-cut style that is now the industry standard -- the show shifted to indoor settings where bored, overdressed celebrities were told what was worth treasuring in their respective states.
Last week, when the final results were announced, the channel cheated. Instead of narrowing the choice down to seven as promised, ten sites made it to the final list. Aside from the 7 Wonders -- Konark, Khajuraho, Madurai's Meenakshi temple, Jaisalmer Fort, Delhi's Red Fort, Nalanda and Dholavira -- the Taj Mahal was nominated The Wonder of India (yawn), Tawang Monastery got a nod as Spiritual Wonder of India, and the Golden Temple was dubbed Wonder of India: Peace and Harmony, a peculiar award for a complex that not long ago became a refuge for well-armed terrorists and was stormed by the Indian army.

No comments: