Auto - No Wisdom

After I wrote the two earlier posts on Auto wisdom I was looking for examples 'inane' or 'clever' (according to the perpetrator) ones and found the best (worst) today. Here it goes, with no comments:

Love is Rose
Rose is Red
Red is Danger



ugh!!!!!!!!!!

Courtesy

A few days ago, I returned home, walked in, pushed the wheelchair out to bring my son in. The road being small, I had to block a part of the road. Normally this would not be a problem. But that day there was a large vehicle (Innova?) parked on the other side of the road, a few meters away. This made it difficult for vehicles coming from either direction, almost impossible, to pass us. As soon as I opened the car door, a taxi came, stopped and waited silently. Since my son had not started getting onto the wheelchair, I closed the door shut and let the taxi pass. I was impressed.

Taxi drivers are notorious for their impatience and noisiness. But this one was silent. Great.

After I opened the door again and my son started getting on to the wheelchair, another taxi came. This one too stopped and waited silently. When I could, again, I closed the door and indicated to the driver that he could now pass. He smiled at me and passed. Ah! Good.

As I started pushing the wheelchair, a big car came towards us, honked impatiently, slowed down but moved past us, very close. Close enough to cause some anxiety.

Ah. Big guns, no time for the hoi polloi in an an (six year) old Maruti . . . ?

Heartening

I was about to get off the footpath but stopped because a heavily burdened Lambani woman was about to come in my way. After she passed, my path was blocked, again, by a small boy being led by the hand by a girl, behind the woman.

The urchin was being led by the hand by a 'modern girl' complete with faded denims, trainer shoes, a t-shirt covered by a denim jacket, complete with a back-pack like bag. The boy had a bedraggled teddy bear and a few other toys which had 'discarded' written all over them - invisibly but unmistakably. I wondered - since when did Lambani girls get this modern?

Finally I got off the foot path, crossed the road and stood on the other footpath waiting for my bus. When I looked across, the girl was walking back, having seen to it that the urchin was safe on the other side of the crossroads. On the distant footpath, a Lambani group was in the process of making their temporary home.

She stood in the bus stand as if she does this kind of thing every day . Perhaps she does. She caught the next bus that came.

Heartening. Heart warming.

sarigannaDa

A friend sent me this photograph with the comment that it was super.

For those who do not read Kannada, here are the transliteration and translation:

kAvEri nIru kuDiyuva munna kannaDa kali
karnATakada anna tinnuva modalu kannaDigara saMskriti kali

Before you drink Kaveri water, learn Kannada.
Before you eat "Kannada rice" (food from Karnataka) learn the culture of Karnataka.

The unfortunate part is that one can easily, and rightly I believe, find errors in the Kannada in the slogan itself.

It should have read:

kAvEriya nIrannu kuDiyuva munna kannaDavannu kali
karnATakada annava tinnuva modalu kannaDigara saMskritiyannu kali

Exercising poetic freedom, some parts could perhaps be dropped. Such parts are in italics above.

This opinion of mine is perhaps controversial. I am ready to let it go.

But below the solgan is a couplet which is just plain wrong. It reads:

Enu ninna ciMte
heLE nanna kAMte

what is your worry
do tell me dearie

The first word in the second line should read hELE, the capital E in the word symbolising the long vowel - like hey!

If we have such facility with and respect for our own language, what is the use of asking "outsiders" to learn our language and respect our culture?

There are many "kannaDa" advertisement hoardings written in English script! No one questions that and protests. That, to me, is sad . . .

Block

One enquired why my blog was dead. Another just ordered me to update my blog. One more told me that he was sick of seeing the same Auto Wisdom and 'pleaded' with me to put something new. Feels good that there are such people who are looking at my blog to see if there is anything new there.

I just went dry, like my eyes .

There was this top adviser to a past PM of India. He was very garrulous. He was talking non-stop to (not with) a visitor from abroad. The visitor apparently had enough and hinted to this VIP thus: "I see many boards all over India that say, "Talk Less, Work More . . . .".

Off went the protagonist of this story and lectured the hapless visitor about the need for such boards in India as we Indians are very talkative . . .. blah blah....

Like him, I am here just to say that I do not know why I have not blogged . . .

With these few words . . .