India Unbound
Know Your Country
Where does India see its first sunrise? How long does our national anthem take to sing? Here are some new facts about our amazing country!
Did you know?
The full national anthem, Jana Gana Mana, takes about 52 seconds to sing. There is also a short version of about 20 seconds. Rabindranath Tagore first wrote it in Bangla (Bengali).
India's first sunrise is seen at Dong, a small village in Anjaw district, Arunachal Pradesh. Visitors start climbing a nearby hill at 3 o'clock in the morning to watch it!
India's southernmost point is not Kanyakumari! It is Indira Point on Great Nicobar Island. From there, the nearest island of Indonesia is only about 145 km away.
Try this: Draw the Tiranga Right
Our flag's length and width are in the ratio 3:2. Draw a rectangle 18 cm long and 12 cm wide. Divide it into three bands, each 4 cm tall: saffron on top, white in the middle, green at the bottom. Draw a navy-blue wheel in the centre with 24 spokes. Tip: draw a plus sign, then add 5 more spokes in each quarter!
Go further: The Story of Our Flag
Our national flag is based on a flag designed by Pingali Venkayya, a freedom fighter born near Machilipatnam in today's Andhra Pradesh. He showed his design to Mahatma Gandhi at Vijayawada in 1921. The flag we use today was adopted on 22 July 1947, a few weeks before Independence. Venkayya loved learning. He studied geology (the science of rocks), and he researched cotton so closely that people nicknamed him 'Patti (Cotton) Venkayya'!