Who’s Big Ben ?

About a decade and a half ago, when I was fresh off the boat in London, my colleagues thought of showing me around as my first-weekend plan. The itinerary and agenda were inherited from their previous batch of expats, which they kindly passed on to me. Little did they know that the chain would eventually end at me. It consisted of a list of monuments and activities and ended with “Finally, we will go see Big Ben”, and instantly, my innocent question flabbergasted them.

Now, Who’s Big Ben?

For those who don’t know and are unwilling to google it, it’s a large clock tower. It has a template structure, similar to the ones at every western town centre, at the end where high streets meet. This one is much more significant, considering London is a much bigger city. It must come with a history for its fame, which I could not tell for, being the person not having heard of it in the first place. However, I had seen it in Movies and needed to register it as a place to “must-visit”, and I wasn’t impressed.

I mean no disrespect to the alleged might of Ben, and I am sure the architects who built the clock tower must’ve been delighted and content with their achievements. Congratulations to them. However, I grew up seeing much more impressive and older structures. I have different definitions for mesmerising and mediocre.

For example, take the Kailasa temple of Ellora; it’s a vertically cut monolith temple on a clifface. Everything had to be perfect. During construction, suppose a sculptor had made a mistake, then all of them pack all their tools and go to a new cliff, pick a new mega rock and start over again! Let that sink in.

Now let’s define “impressive” Mr Big Ben.

P.S. Recently, I met one of my friends who proudly showed me around Buckingham, St Paul, Big Ben, etc. He had never heard of Ellora. That’s the context.

PS2. Now that I read about it, Big Ben was constructed after the Indian Sipoy Mutiny, and overlords started reporting directly to the Crown from the previous East India Company. So, the wealth extracted from cash cow India must have contributed to this construction. I can’t tell with conviction, but come to think of it, Big Ben now looks even more mediocre to me.