Intellectual Thoughts by Sanjay Panda: Now, "Horn OK Please" is not OK.


Now, "Horn OK Please" is not OK.



“Horn OK please”    Readers outside  of the Indian subcontinent must be wondering, what does this  mean?????   Well,  It’s a  phrase commonly painted on  the rear side of  commercial vehicles like  trucks, buses or local taxis,   mostly in India.   The purpose of the phrase is to alert a driver of a vehicle approaching from behind to sound their horn in case they wish to overtake.

A country where road safety  still  seems to be a  rocket science and not  a common sense or  common practice, honking surely  alerted some reckless  drivers who are forced to  drive in poor road & vehicle conditions. 

But it gave licence to motorists to honk unnecessarily and   became   a big nuisance   in our lives.

Indian’s obsession on this noise creating piece of equipment  is  so high that in the past CEO’s/ Head’s of  big  Automakers openly declared  they spent fair amount of money and time to  bring  such  new systems  (  probably Loudest is the Best)   to be fitted in their vehicle  and those   were/are part of their innovation projects.

Sounds unbelievable !!!  Spend some  time in  one of  the Indian roads,  the varying degree  &  type of Noise/Melody  one will hear  owing to  honking even  a music composer will start doubting on his/her own ability.

Now, one of the states in India, Maharashtra (Mumbai is part of  the state) issued a circular banning the use of the phrase " Horn Ok Please" on the rear side of commercial vehicles across Maharashtra to prevent/discourage  honking. Hope  other  states  will follow  soon.

The Motorists  and the automaker,  hope  soon realise “Horn Ok Please” is not at all OK.