Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

Signboards from humour heaven

The unique safety signboards on the Manali-Leh Highway make driving a pleasure

A road winding through a high pass in the Himalayas, an aquamarine lake on one side and a board on the other that declared the altitude and significance of the pass I was crossing. A little further on was another smaller board and we stopped our jeep to take a look at what it said: "Be gentle on my curves".

It definitely took a while to register and that, after a careful second glance to make sure I had not misread it. It looked like any other yellow and black boards put up by the Indian Army, most of which declared the name of the place or pass, its altitude and the code number of the team of engineers who had worked on that stretch of the road. I was driving to Ladakh from Himachal with a bunch of other people and all along the 485 km stretch of the Manali-Leh Highway in the Western Himalayas, I had seen other road signs that quite sedately asked the drivers to drive carefully or warned of a steep curve ahead. But this particular signboard though seemed to be a suggestive, private joke that an Army officer had had at the cost of a yellow slab and hundreds of people who drive past each year.

The board had perked my curiosity and I started taking interest in each yellow board that came up after sharp curves. And they only seemed to get from funny to funnier and ridiculous. There was one that poetically suggested "No race, no rally; look at the valley" and another that advised, "No one is a Gamma in the Land of Lamas". A few kilometres ahead, another one sagely announced, "If you are married, divorce speed". Some were more matter of fact — "Safety Saves" — to make sure the point was driven home; or "Valley is deep, don't go sleep" or even the less poetic "Peep peep, don't sleep". If these didn't make a dozing driver sit up and take notice, what would? Some appealed to drivers who took to the roads after downing a couple of drinks — "Drive on horsepower, not rum power" or "After whisky, driving risky". For the foodies, one board declared, "Hurry-burry spoils curry". Some of the road engineers of Himank (the Army unit responsible for the roads in Higher Himalayas) had decided to pat themselves on the back with a few boards dedicated to themselves. So you had "Balle balle Himank" and "Himank is the life of Ladakh and part of it".

There were a few boards for those who were tempted to check the power of their fou-wheel drives on the winding roads — "Better be Mr. Late than late Mr." or "On this bend, go slow friend" or "Speed is the knife that cuts life". Sound advice, poetically conceived, even if they sound like nursery rhymes. The best of the lot were those that I surmised. They must have been composed by a lovesick, imaginative BRO officer forced to leave his sweetheart in the plains below. There was a tempting offer — "On my curves, check your nerves". But my favourite was a tantalising, "I want you darling, but not so fast". Can anyone resist that?

A British tourist who was travelling with me, hesitatingly asked me whether these boards were meant to be taken seriously since he thought I would get offended if he laughed at the boards. I guess that the officers who engineer the highest roads on the planet want to drive home a point without sounding like they are preaching.

Travelling has its perks — the places, the people and the cultures. But once in a while, it's something small, something unexpected and sometimes, something totally ludicrous like these unlikely road safety signboards that make travelling more interesting. Who says you can't have a good laugh while driving on deserted roads in a remote corner of the Himalayas?

INDU L. PRASAD

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail