Humour on the highway, courtesy truck taglines
Indians are known for their sense of humour. A lively example of humour meets the eyes on highways. Well, I’m talking about funny and philosophical taglines and slogans you get to read on trucks of all sizes and shapes. The romance between trucks and highways has a unique literary output. Evidence of it is all pervasive on roads when trucks speedily cross by or wait for the traffic signal to turn green.
Indian trucks are in a way a miniature India. Truckers lead a life in relative obscurity while ferrying the overloads of the economy across the length and breadth of the country, spending a major part of their life to the vagaries of the highways.
Trucks become their second home. As we decorate our homes with paintings, portraits and plants, they get pithy phrases painted at the back of their colourful trucks. These taglines are visual representations of their life, identity, loneliness and reflections on contemporary politics and society. Some slogans are wacky, some naughty, some touching, some inspirational and some even literary.
Traditionalists at the wheel take only defensive actions, such as: “Buri nazar wale tera muh kala (Beware, one with an evil eye).” It’s usually written to avoid misfortune. There’s a jutti (shoe) dangling from the bumper for added effect.
“Take poison but don’t believe in girls,” is a quirky quote that brings out the heartbreak behind break-ups. There’s a dare for the impatient driver: “Dum hai toh cross kar varna bardasht kar (If you have the guts, overtake otherwise stay patient).”
Patriotism is on display in double measure in the slogan, Jai Bharat, Jai
Maharashtra. Then there are flirtatious quotes that make you smile: “Hans mat pagli pyar ho jaayega. A witty one at the back of a small lorry went: “Main bada ho kar truck banunga (I’ll be a truck when I grow up),” makes you laugh as a big truck overtakes it in a sunny sway.
The quote, “Vishwas vaham hai, sachhai jhooth hai”, puts forward an appropriate point stating trust is hallucination and truth is false. It gives a peep into the musings of truck drivers. One that discourages speeding goes like this: “Dheere chaloge to baar baar milenge, nahi to Haridwar milenge”, while another celebrating the girl child is: “Ladli parivar ki, maa ka ashirwad”.
These are not mere taglines but truths that give a glimpse into the driver’s psyche.
Moreover, the play with spellings and grammar is hilarious. “Use dipper at night” becomes “Use diaper at nite”.
Some ubiquitous phrases written near the taillight, such as OK, Tata; Hum do hamare do; and Horn please have unique stories behind them. Dan Eckstein, who photographed truck art all over India for his book Horn Please, says this phrase dates back to the time when trucks lacked side view mirrors and needed honking when they overtook.
Couplets and adages are a kind of mobile literary form. Truck literature expresses the trucker’s love for life on the go and brings out feelings of loss, desire, moving on and loneliness of being away from home for days together. So shayari written at the back of the truck is an extension of the personality of the driver or owner, offering a snapshot of an India caught between tradition and modernity. They are poets of the road who work hard to keep themselves and fellow travellers in good humour with their tangy tidbits and taglines on trucks.
THESE TAGLINES ARE VISUAL REPRESENTATIONS OF THEIR LIFE, IDENTITY, LONELINESS AND REFLECTIONS ON CONTEMPORARY POLITICS AND SOCIETY