Reading Between the Signboards

The Unintended Message

                                                                                             -Anupama S Mani

After years of announcements, presentations and artist's impressions, this is the closest I have come to seeing a bullet train in Indian Railways.
Photo: Hansel Aubert

All of us have heard the cliché that a picture speaks a thousand words. The photographs that follow do something more. They tell stories their creators probably never intended to tell. In this relentless summer, that may be as good a reason as any to smile.

The only elevator I've seen that honestly advertises its principal function. Built in 1978 on a hotel that opened in 1922, it is no longer in passenger service but still lights up for special occasions—and apparently for time travel.

Landing is optional. Shopping is mandatory. Seen at Hyederabad airport. 

Not on the road, at least while driving. Wise advice but one that nobody expected to see painted on a truck.

Somewhere between Burmese and English, the translator abandoned diplomacy and embraced plain speaking.

The Hindi is firm, the stencil is firm. The campaign against smoking was going well until English arrived.

Nothing inspires confidence in a digestive remedy quite like a sentence that is itself constipated.

 “A dog, a buffalo and a beautiful woman are all signs of an accident waiting to happen,” says the board. Judging by how distracting the sign itself is, it may have a point.

Once your boat has sunk—and preferably not with you in it—there are surprisingly few worries left in life.

The mystery is solved. Someone stole the secret of happiness and forgot to return it.

The first sign in this collection promised a bullet train. The last one asks for a like. One of these requests is easier to fulfil.

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