**Bhubaneswar:** As we celebrate the 72nd Independence Day of India, OMMCOM NEWS tried to test the knowledge of Odisha capital city’s smart denizens who braved the rains to witness the Independence Day celebrations held in the Mahatma Gandhi Marg of this smart city.
We criss-crossed numerous people, both school and college students, and the vibrating youth of Bhubaneswar just to know the answers of a few simple queries.
Who was the composer of the national anthem ‘Jana Gana Mana’?
and
What are the colours of our national flag?
The whole street was vibrating with patriotic songs and people flaunted the tricolor flags to showcase their patriotism. But when these questions were posed to those people over there, we received some shocking answers which left us astonished at the level of patriotic IQ of the people present there.
To a youngster holding a national flag in his hand, the colours of the tricolour were violet, pink and white. It bounds you to think whether he has colour blindness in his vision!
Furthermore he named Bankim Chandra Chatterjee as the composer of National Anthem. Hail to his patriotism!
Another youth was caught unawares. He fumbled initially and pleaded not to take his byte for the query to the writer of national anthem.
A man began itching his hairs and beard but was unable to recall the writer of national anthem.
A school boy in uniform gave a fright by the answers he uttered. When asked about the person who drafted the national anthem, he began a speech, “Today, CM Naveen Patnaik had come here……” And to a question on the colors of the tricolor, he uttered maroon instead of saffron. Clearly confused and nervous, eh!
A lady who braved the rains to witness the independence day celebrations by putting on a raincoat got in a fix when asked about the creator of the national anthem. But she boldly said that the tricolor flag has green, white and red colours.
A young couple just passed on the questions to one another, unable to answer these basic questions regarding our independence day.
Many got a shock of their life when asked about the writer of their national anthem. Several denizens outrightly refused to answer it. When asked about the colours of the tricolor, two young residents of the capital city answered, “white, orange and blue.”
You will be surprised to know that a school student made Jawaharlal Nehru as the writer of our national anthem and started answering a phone call to duck away from the question of the colors of the national flag.
Another termed Subhas Chandra Bose as the one who drafted ‘Jana Gana Mana’.
But there were some face savers too, who answered all the questions correctly. Some ladies of the city boldly answered the right answers, while some just smile off coyly to duck the questions.
It is disheartening to know that after 72 years of independence, when the country is boasting of facilitating basic education to almost all the children of the nation, many people are still unaware of the basic facts regarding their country.
India may be known for its lingual cultural diversity and as the originator of Chess, Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus. It may be the world’s largest democracy, having the largest road and rail network, but the people here have a long way to go in terms of knowing the basic facts of our long struggled independence.
