Horn OK Please
Anybody who has travelled in India will be able to place the words in the title immediately. These words along with the "Hum Do Humare Do" slogan, immediately bring to mind the rear of a truck. The "Horn OK Please" carries such a good recall that I wonder why we have not had any director making a movie with it as the title. The words are painted behind so many trucks and other LMVs that one would be tempted to believe that these are meant for meeting some RTO directive. The truth however is that these words were painted in order to allow vehicles to overtake. The word OK used to have a big light below it that used to be switched ON when the driver of the vehicle wanted to signal to the vehicle following that it was safe to overtake. The "Horn Please" used to surround the "OK" with one word on each side, and as the bulb glowed these words used to become visible and were supposed to read as "Horn Please". Basically meaning, "please horn while u overtake, upon seeing the OK". Today however this system is no longer used, in its place being a very misleading mechanism of using the right indicator. But this legacy has continued and these words continue to occupy their slots.
While we were going for our post lunch walk today, Anil was telling us about his erstwhile American colleague who had come down to India for a short tour. This guy was very happy to see the "Horn Please" painted behind every vehicle he saw in India. American society frowns upon the usage of the horn and it is considered extremely impolite to honk unless you have a very serious protest to make. So the guy was extremely happy to find that in India you were actually being requested to honk by the leading vehicles and hence he kept honking everywhere he went. These are the tiny pleasures that we Indians take for granted!!
Speaking of pleasures, another favourite pastime of mine is reading the graffiti that is scribbled on the rear of the trucks. This seems to have acquired the status of an art form nowadays. A recent one that I noticed when I had travelled up north was "Hum Tumhari Le Chuke Sanam". But I have to agree that this is done primarily in the northern part of India. The southern truckers seem to be happy by mentioning "XYZ Transports" and ofcourse the "Horn Ok Please".
A very common one used to be "Buri Nazar Vaale Tera Munh Kaala". This was modified by an innovative guy to read as "Buri Nazar Vaale Tera Beta Jiye, Bada hokar tera khoon piye"!! Another one was "Buri Nazar Vaale, Tu Chala Ja Pakistan". If one were to notice the huge diesel tanks of these trucks , they invariably used to read "Khuraak Mantri" or "Khadya Mantri". The same stuff translated to English, down south, I saw a truck with "Food Ministry" painted across the tank. I must say that we Indians sure do have a sense of humour.
Here in Bangalore, instead of the trucks I look out for the auto rickshaws. These guys seem to have their own favourites. A very common one is "Hi XXX", the XXX being anybody from Upendra to ChandreGowda. Some of these have religious connotations as well. "Jesus will save you" is pretty common. The Bangalore RTO seemed to have made it a rule for all autos to have "Please do not pollute the environment" painted on the rear. It is ironical to find this written on an auto, which sometimes is the most polluting vehicle around. I guess what they are actually trying to say is "Please do not pollute the environment, we are doing a good enough job". Here, just as all over the world, grammar rules take a beating. A properly spelled complete sentence is a rarity. "Black smoke , the lungs choke" is a good example.
Reverting to the earlier topic of trucks I remember this marketing survey result that a friend of mine had disclosed to me. The survey was called for by a firm that manufactures a female hygiene product (blush,blush:). They had noticed that a lot of sales were being made out of the tiny paan-cigarette joints that line the highways, typically around a dhaba. Since it is not very common for the end-users of this product to hang around highways , the firm did some more studies. They found that these products were sought after by the truck drivers!! The drivers seemed to find these products very useful in tackling excessive sweating behind the neck and other common troublesome areas;) I wonder if the firm has tried to modify their advertising to target this category of consumers. It sure is a difficult task to market the same product keeping in mind the feminine aspect and also the truck driver. Reminds me of the pepsi/coke officials when they found that their colas were being put to use as pesticide-additives by some farmers in Karnataka and as a result sales were booming. Now how are they to cater to this class??
While we were going for our post lunch walk today, Anil was telling us about his erstwhile American colleague who had come down to India for a short tour. This guy was very happy to see the "Horn Please" painted behind every vehicle he saw in India. American society frowns upon the usage of the horn and it is considered extremely impolite to honk unless you have a very serious protest to make. So the guy was extremely happy to find that in India you were actually being requested to honk by the leading vehicles and hence he kept honking everywhere he went. These are the tiny pleasures that we Indians take for granted!!
Speaking of pleasures, another favourite pastime of mine is reading the graffiti that is scribbled on the rear of the trucks. This seems to have acquired the status of an art form nowadays. A recent one that I noticed when I had travelled up north was "Hum Tumhari Le Chuke Sanam". But I have to agree that this is done primarily in the northern part of India. The southern truckers seem to be happy by mentioning "XYZ Transports" and ofcourse the "Horn Ok Please".
A very common one used to be "Buri Nazar Vaale Tera Munh Kaala". This was modified by an innovative guy to read as "Buri Nazar Vaale Tera Beta Jiye, Bada hokar tera khoon piye"!! Another one was "Buri Nazar Vaale, Tu Chala Ja Pakistan". If one were to notice the huge diesel tanks of these trucks , they invariably used to read "Khuraak Mantri" or "Khadya Mantri". The same stuff translated to English, down south, I saw a truck with "Food Ministry" painted across the tank. I must say that we Indians sure do have a sense of humour.
Here in Bangalore, instead of the trucks I look out for the auto rickshaws. These guys seem to have their own favourites. A very common one is "Hi XXX", the XXX being anybody from Upendra to ChandreGowda. Some of these have religious connotations as well. "Jesus will save you" is pretty common. The Bangalore RTO seemed to have made it a rule for all autos to have "Please do not pollute the environment" painted on the rear. It is ironical to find this written on an auto, which sometimes is the most polluting vehicle around. I guess what they are actually trying to say is "Please do not pollute the environment, we are doing a good enough job". Here, just as all over the world, grammar rules take a beating. A properly spelled complete sentence is a rarity. "Black smoke , the lungs choke" is a good example.
Reverting to the earlier topic of trucks I remember this marketing survey result that a friend of mine had disclosed to me. The survey was called for by a firm that manufactures a female hygiene product (blush,blush:). They had noticed that a lot of sales were being made out of the tiny paan-cigarette joints that line the highways, typically around a dhaba. Since it is not very common for the end-users of this product to hang around highways , the firm did some more studies. They found that these products were sought after by the truck drivers!! The drivers seemed to find these products very useful in tackling excessive sweating behind the neck and other common troublesome areas;) I wonder if the firm has tried to modify their advertising to target this category of consumers. It sure is a difficult task to market the same product keeping in mind the feminine aspect and also the truck driver. Reminds me of the pepsi/coke officials when they found that their colas were being put to use as pesticide-additives by some farmers in Karnataka and as a result sales were booming. Now how are they to cater to this class??
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