Left and right images courtesy: Being Indian | Centre image: AFP
Most Indians were furious that Maria Sharapova didn't know who Sachin Tendulkar was. Social media groaned under the weight of the memes that were made to express our horror that a Russian tennis player did not know who we Indians call the God of cricket. Many reverted with, 'Who is Maria Sharapova?' Legitimate question, considering we don't quite know who our own athletes are, forget those born on foreign lands.
In this shocking video made by the YouTube channel, Being Indian, we see a mind numbing display of ignorance by the youngsters of Mumbai. Mary Kom is apparently 'a hockey or tennis player'. Pankaj Avani plays chess and Narain Karthikeyan plays cricket. For the record: Mary Kom won the Arjuna Awards for boxing, Advani's won the same award for billiards. And Karthikeyan is India's first F1 racer. You have got to live under a soundproof rock to not know all this.
However, we're confident that this sort of ignorance breeds pretty much all over India and not just Mumbai. Sample this:
Q: Baichung Bhutia is associated with which game?
A: Tennis or Snooker.Umm... Really?
Oh, and this.
Q: Mahesh Bhupathi plays which sport?
A: Olympics. Say what again? Olympics is now a sport and not a sporting event? Okay then.
That's all we can take for now. Do tell us if you could stop yourself from facepalming: