Intellectual Thoughts by Sanjay Panda


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.