Horn Honking

Kengonetoindia

Here's a fun email I got from a friend who's spent considerable time in India


In response to the question: "Why do you honk your horn?"


Because it is there.

It adds auditory colour to the intricate visual tapestry of day-to-day
street existence.

I bought it; I'm gonna use it.

It is part of an essential bat-like sonar echolocation system.

I beep, therefore I am.

It stimulates milk production in the cows.

It scares off potential attackers as I run the gauntlet.

My horn switch has only one position.

A hammer is to pound things with; a horn...duh!

It helps keep me awake. (Popular with over-night bus drivers)

Without my horn
I feel forlorn.
I beep it all the day.
I cannot see
How I could be
Not honking through the fray.

virajverma

You have it ....blow it

machadinha

Excellent Ken, glad to see that punctured lung did nothing to your sense of humor.

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ChrisJ

One of my friends came to the UK from India. He got a license to drive in England.

Can you imagine the time we spent stopping him from tooting all the time!!

He got the message in the end!



Chris.

whatsilliness

HAHAHH thats excellent.

i didnt know indians constantly honked....
but now, i will know the reasons and thus will save myself one unanswered question once im there

cheers and beers!

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rab

Here in Adelaide I don't think I have heard a car horn in a year and a half! I think to be on the receiving end of a horn blast here is taken personally!

On the one occasion a used my horn here I got a driver (who was in the wrong) flash his lights at me and drive close behind gesturing aggressively as if he wanted to stop and fight!!!

In India its totally different - using the car horn is almost a common courtesy!!!

rab

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AnneT

The only time I can ever remember wanting to honk my horn, it took me so long to figure out how to use it that the moment to honk had passed.

skell

This story is not from India!

One day, a guy was driving with his four-year-old daughter and beeped his car horn by mistake.

She turned and looked at him for an explanation.

He said, "I did that by accident."

She replied, "I know that, daddy."

He replied, "How'd you know?"

The girl said, "Because you didn't say 'JERK' afterwards!"

beach

“Horn OK Please” is the world’s largest orchestra. The good news is that its free and moves with you

amyl

...hee hee hee

yea Indians that way are obedient to only this remark at the rear of every big vehicle...

but somehow they seem to blind themselves for that two character letter "No" in "No Parking" and gleefully park their vehicles right at the board.....thats India for sure!!!

sadhuji

honking of horns are prohibited in the zones of hospitals and schools.

in other places, it is customary to honk and let the drivers around you know of your presence. it is supposed to help reduce accidents.

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Nick-H

Because slowing down at a junction to see if anyone is coming is just too much trouble,, and why bother anyway when you have no intention of stopping for them!

By the way: I hate the way my Indian friends drive in London... It's by-the-book for the first week after they pass they UK test and then it's back to leaving three inches to the car in front and trying to overtake between lanes...

beach

My office is a few kilometers from my home.

I start the car and honk the horn mildly – to check if it’s working in perfect order

Then I honk when I pull the car out of my gate – to alert anyone coming from behind the neighbor’s car, which is parked 2 inches from my car’s bumper.

I drive slowly for a few meters in the residential area - I don’t honk. No use, because everyone here knows me, and none would move even if I honk!

A few more meters – honk..honk..- This is where the lane from the neighborhood block joins ours.

A few more meters- HOOOOOONK- the narrow lane joins the main road.

This long honk marks the end of my ‘good chap in the neighborhood’ status.

Now I’ve to deal with the failed schumachers and Kamikase drivers and UFOs (with wheels)…not to mention the newly wed cows and their husbands on the morning walk at the middle of the road.

Honk …(at the boy trying to cross the road).
Honk ( at the autorickshaw ahead of me who tried to make a MiG29 style U turn )
Honk ( at the truck who just overtook me from the left)
Honk (at the two taxi drivers cracking a joke at the middle of the road)
Honk (at the lady driving the mopped with an L board hooked to the tail lamp)
Honk (at the curve ahead)
Honk (not for any particular reason…)
Honk (at the junction ahead)
Honk (no one else is honking , for the past 2 minutes)
Honk…HONK..Honk…HONK …(that’s from my friend’s car behind. That’s how good morning is wished )
Honk…HONK..Honk…HONK … (I return the curtsey)
Honk…..Hoooonk…Honk…Hooonk…(so meone is saying ‘look, my car is new!’)
…..

…..

…..

…..just another normal day to the work

amyl

hee hee heee

this will perfectly convince ppl out there as to why indians are into this "bad" , "impolite" habit of honking every now and then....

biswajit_27

Honking horns is impolite ??? Says who ??? You ??? But you are in "foreign" countries... not in India...

I honk to tell the vehicle in front of me NOT to take any sudden twists & turns while I am trying to overtake him. LOL ;-)...sometimes I honk when I see a nice gal passing by... sometimes to express my anger...

It helps in the game of "who-will-blink-first" ....scares the other guy & makes him blink.

So a horn is a "tool for expressing yoursel"...my advice would be to use it in your countries too...life will be really cool...