proposed Shivaji monument in the Arabian sea will be taller than the Statue of Liberty.
Such comparisons are odious. But now that one has been made, I wish to take it further.
Inscription on the Statue of Liberty contains these lines:
'..."Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"'
Will the Monument of Shivaji ask for tired, poor, huddled masses from anywhere in India?
Or will we do the same thing that Americans are doing in the picture below?
'They turned her on her side and made her a fence.'
Artist: Mike Luckovich
Staying on the topic of monuments...
James Lamont wrote:
"...The Rajya Sabha, or upper parliamentary house, recently heard that 35 of the country’s centrally protected monuments had disappeared. The list stretches from Assam in the north-east, where the guns of Emperor Sher Shah have vanished, to Karnataka in the south, where a prehistoric site near Mysore has been swallowed up..." (FT, August 10 2009)
Remember 'सह्याद्रीची चोरी' लेखक: रमेश मंत्री ('The Theft of Sahyadri' Author: Ramesh Mantri)?
When mountains are stolen, why not monuments?