Horn Ok Please

Horn OK Please!!

We have seen this phrase on trucks mainly. I always used to wonder what this means with the OK in between and found the Wikipedia entry on this. This is supposed to mean that if someone wishes to overtake, they have to honk.

Probably this shows the Indian psyche of honking incessantly on the roads at the slightest or no provocation whatsoever. As I sit in my office and listen to the blaring of horns, it is like one single continuous sound, with the variation in pitch, strength and also the output decibel.

I read this bit--

As our one and a half hour drive (only 30 kilometers) continued, I began to realize that in this mess of cars, people and huge puddles, honking is the only organizing factor.

"Honk, honk-hoooooonk, honk-honk! Watch out, I am intending to go non-stop where I am going! I am not going to stop just to save your life!"

"Honk-honnnnnk, Honk-Hon! I see, you are on my tail, going non-stop where you are going. Aye, why do you rush so much?"

Honkkkkkk-honk-honk-honk-hooooonk! I am trying to kill myself and these two stupid foreigners."

"Honk-Honk. You must do what you must do."

And so it goes, non-stop, the music of Indian roads. We make a sharp left turn and with a brave acceleration, speed towards a very (and I mean VERY) narrow street of Maja-ka-Tilla (a small Tibetan quarter in Delhi). I am convinced we are going to kill a few people but no, despite our speed and incessant honking, a few pedestrians (many of them red robed monks) respond with a surprising sense of calm and trust. Trust in the driver? Trust in the inevitable? Divine intervention? Our mini-van barely misses; sometimes it actually brushes against their torsos. Only later do I learn that personal space is highly negligible in India: especially on the streets. Cars, cows, donkeys, motorcycles and people, all rub each other as they negotiate crowded streets and small spaces. Amazing, there are few accidents.

where Misha narrates her visit to Delhi.

And another site which gives instructions as to how to drive in India, it says dont hesitate to honk. Honk to let someone know you are behind them, honk to tell someone they better move out of the way or else, honk to get someone's attention, basically honk for just about anything.

Yes!! It is democrazy on the Roads. Go ahead, Honk or you might be a murderer.

There are reports that there is a crackdown in Mumbai on noisy motorists.

But now the Mumbai traffic police, in a move that runs against the very culture of driving in this city of 18m, have begun cracking down on noisy motorists. Police have booked 368 car owners for shrill and "non-regulation" horns and for violating silence zones that prohibit honking near hospitals, educational institutions and places of worship, according to the Mumbai traffic police website.

The offending horns ranged from the shrill high-pressure variety used by trucks on the sub-continent to other kinds that have been modified to play the latest Bollywood melodies or even to sound like dogs barking.

Still, honking is second nature to Indian drivers. Hope we too are able to effectively introduce noise-less driving on our roads soon.
Pic- The Internet