Is there any change in Roman numerals? or one has to learn them again

Islamabad

In the big cities all over the world the presence of a ‘Clock Tower’ is always taken as a ‘land mark’. Or, probably the British seem more obsessed with having these ‘clock towers’ and that obsession abundantly reflects in the cities of the countries that had once remained the colonies of the British Empire!

In Islamabad, the capital city of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, it seems that some people in the civic body responsible for the maintenance, upkeep and beautification of the city, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) also have a similar passion towards huge clocks.

But with a difference! They prefer clocks laid out at an alleviated piece of land with an artificial green turf as the background, the Roman numeral and large arms in white!

We saw first such clock at the junction of ‘Kulsoom Plaza’ on the northern side of the Jinnah Avenue, say about a decade or may be a bit less ago. Spread out on a sizeable piece of land, the display initially appeared eye-catching and even an object worth taking a picture with! But it was not many days that it was made operation that the timing on the dial got all wrong! And one day it simply vanished. No trace left behind. No explanation given about its disappearance.

Now, we are seeing another couple of such ‘ground clock’ displays turning up in the federal capital. Or, at least I am aware of only two. There could be more. One at the Garden Avenue inter-change on Islamabad Highway and the other at the corner of the Marghazar Chowk on the northern side on Khayaban-e-Iqbal (Margalla Road).

These are indeed interesting sights. Eye-catchers! Especially for the children, who become so excited and happy and would not hesitate to ask, whoever is behind the wheel of the vehicle, to stop or at least slow down, so that they can have a better look and even take a picture. For the ‘Facebook’!

But we believe that this particular venture at the ‘Garden Avenue’ inter-change would also be very interesting for people of all ages, especially those who are familiar with the Roman numeral.

I have not checked whether it has already made operational and the arms of the clock have started ticking away or not. But we believe that these Roman numeric indicating ‘7’ and ‘8’ digits on the face of the clock are not correctly denoted.

Okay, fine. The workman busy putting these Roman numerals there on the clock may not be learned enough to know the shape and as to how to put those there. But had it not been a bit wise on part of the gentleman given the task to put this clock there to spend a little time, watching the things more closely and immediately making the corrections!?

No pun intended indeed, but I wonder if he himself is sufficiently acquainted with these alien numerals? But how difficult it would have been for him or them to get these downloaded (if they actually did not know how to write the numeric in Roman) from the Google, get a print out and keep that handy while carrying out the job to cross check?

By the way, why go for these Roman numeral in the first place? It is long that the teachers have stopped teaching these in the schools. Had it not be better that the people in the CDA had stuck with the Gothic numeral. The simple ‘1, 2, 3 . . . 7, 8, 9 0?’

And even better would have been a large digital board display! Easy to install and even easier to maintain! And it would have been visible during the night too! Agreed it would not have been a visual treat as this one is with the seasonal flower beds on the clock face. But that would indeed serve the purpose much better.

We really do appreciate whatever the CDA is doing to add things of beauty to this city of ours. But not like this one please!