Horn Ok Please: A Traffic Story
From childhood, I was always fascinated by vehicles and driving. As a kid, I was captivated by the phrases painted on trucks and buses. I think my love for words started there. One phrase appeared everywhere: “Horn Ok Please.” It was as ubiquitous as registration numbers, and for years I assumed it was mandatory.
My curiosity about this phrase’s origin led me down an amusing rabbit hole. One story claims Tata Motors coined it to promote “OK,” their detergent and bath soap, using their own trucks as mobile billboards. Another suggests “OK” stood for “On Kerosene”—a warning to other drivers not to rear-end fuel-carrying vehicles. The most plausible explanation? It was simply instructions for overtaking on single-lane roads decades ago.
This transformation from practical utility to cultural norm mirrors many questionable traditions we blindly follow in India.
The Sound of Silence
Honking became so ingrained in Indian driving culture that I assumed it was universal—until I visited Bhutan. The almost zen-like tranquility there, created largely by the absence of constant honking, felt like stepping into another world.
Surprisingly, the next place that challenged my assumptions about honking was Mumbai. Yes, Mumbai—the city synonymous with chaos. Despite heavy traffic, people weren’t constantly honking. But don’t mistake this for orderly driving. Instead of honking, Mumbaikars simply weave through traffic with complete disregard for lanes or rules.
The Maharashtra government banned “Horn Ok Please” on commercial vehicles in 2015, and it seems to have worked—at least for noise pollution control.
Navigating the Unspoken Rules
When multiple vehicles silently converge on the same spot without warning, it’s unnerving for newcomers. If there’s even a sliver of space, assume someone will squeeze their vehicle’s nose into it.
Most major Indian cities have radio traffic updates warning about road blockages. Mumbai is different—certain notorious junctions are never mentioned in traffic reports. The city’s collective understanding seems to be: if you must pass through these spots, abandon all hope of smooth travel.
When Google Maps suggests an 11-kilometer detour instead of a 5-kilometer direct route at 5:30 AM, you understand the city’s predicament.
The Price of Urban Dreams
Despite the charm of living in a shoebox while paying exorbitant rent, spending more time hunting for parking than actually driving, and celebrating “moderate” air quality like a miracle, Mumbai remains irreplaceable for many. Few cities offer comparable opportunities, even with their suffocating problems.
The situation isn’t improving. Megacities worldwide are pricing out ordinary people, turning homeownership into a lifetime financial burden. Until someone content with life’s basic needs can afford decent living in India’s tier-1 and tier-2 cities, we’ll see more megacities resorting to band-aid solutions—banning phrases like “Horn Ok Please” or implementing odd-even traffic rules.
The real question isn’t how to manage the chaos, but how to prevent it from becoming inevitable in the first place.