Horn Please Okay

I would consider this less of a blog and more of a PSA—a public service announcement about something I didn’t know existed until a few weeks ago, and which made my artsy designer heart extremely happy. And I’m writing this solely because it’s my turn to do Monday inspiration and because I want to tell you about this thing as well.

About a month ago I traveled to India for a week of wedding festivities in honor of my friend Rahul, the groom. The wedding took place in multiple states in India, which meant I flew between a few major cities and, on one unexpected occasion, road tripped. I don’t think driving long distances in rural India is something most Americans have reason to do, which is quite possibly why I lived so many years of my life without knowing about India’s painted lorries, which are better than our own 18-wheelers by a factor of about a million.

Me seeing these trucks for the first time was akin to the wonder of a toddler gazing at a flaming birthday cake. They are painted. By hand. All over. They’re decorated with carved wood, stamped metal, reflective tape, flowers, tassels and other folk art, completely coated, inside and out. I was smitten. I love art that can be worn, used, stood on, sat on, wondered about or filled with fruit salad… Basically, art that doesn’t take itself too seriously. (Or maybe it takes itself the most seriously, because it actually lives among people and takes a ding or two rather than stopping us at a velvet rope. Shrug.) I love art that can honk at a herd of goats on the road because they’re stuck behind a lumbering elephant because it’s stuck behind a guy at a roadside stand buying a tassel for his painted truck.

I attempted to explain my enamored reaction to the three other wedding guests in the car with me, two of whom visit India fairly frequently. “I’m a designer,” I said. “We love stuff like this. We nerd out about hand lettering and signage and patterns and stuff. There has to be an Instagram devoted to these trucks, right?” I mean, I know there’s a lot that I’m totally ignorant of, but surely the design community at large had a collective freakout about this art form years ago. They didn’t think this was likely.

When I finally got to internet, which wasn’t for a few days because I’m cheap and don’t turn on data when I travel overseas, I confirmed that there is indeed NO Instagram for painted Indian lorries, or at least not one that I could find. My friends were right. There’s not even an associated hashtag. Which means that maybe the design community at large has not yet had a collective freakout, and maybe I’m the first person telling you about how cool these trucks are. If that’s the case, you’re welcome. Maybe it’s the case that I’m the only person who’s going to nerd out about this, and that’s fine, too.

I did at least come across this book, which I’m requesting for my birthday. I’ve heard tell from Hindi-speaking friends that there might be an in-language Netflix documentary as well, so I’m attempting to track that down as we speak, if it’s even available in the States.

*"Horn Please Okay" is painted on the back of many large trucks in India to encourage honking (if needed). Apparently the government is not a fan of this as it promotes noise pollution, but it’s basically tradition.