[ChiragM]

India's first truck art gallery, a truck with artwork at the back, is an attempt to bring back a lost genre of art called truck art. According to a media report, the truck was shown at a film institute in Mumbai recently.



Farid Bawa, who came up with the idea, claims that his grandfather had a transport business and he grew up watching artists painting trucks before their journeys and that each artist has his own painting style. Due to the advent of pre-painted trucks and stickers, the demand for truck artists dried up.

He started by handing out cold rolled metal sheets to the artists for them to paint on. He then posted the finished art online and got a good response. This led him to make an art truck and take it to various cities in Maharashtra.



He also claims that every drawing and every slogan has a meaning. For example, the eagle stands for transportation, a picture of deity is there for protection, and pictures of villages are there to remind the drivers of their homes. A drawing of a young Chandra Shekhar Azad is there to show fearlessness and a tiger is also used as it is the national animal. The popular slogan 'Horn OK Please' is used to remind other drivers to honk when overtaking the truck.

Farid hopes to have an all-India tour with more art trucks. You can view more of the artists' work on this website and these Facebook and Instagram pages.

Source: Times of India













Link to Team-BHP News

[paragsachania]

This is indeed a wonderful thought. Our country's highways are boring and monotonous with the absence of these colorful trucks. I just cannot imagine a drive on our highways where I don't get to pass these beautiful monsters that reflect a lot of elements apart from just the colorful paintings. The article has so aptly referred to this fact that each of the paintings has a significance.

If you miss bumping into this 'Art Truck' you still have the simplest of option to head towards the nearest National highway, preferably one that connects cross country sections (Mumbai - Ahmedabad - Delhi, Mumbai - Nashik -Indore, Mumbai - Bangalore - Chennai, Delhi - Nagpur - Hyderabad - Nagpur, Krishnagiri - Palakkad - Kochi, Delhi - Calcutta, Vijaywada - Odisha etc).

No, you don't need to drive the entire length of these highways but merely stop by a toll booth and watch them pass the toll booths in all shapes and sizes and if you love trucks, I bet you will have a wonderful time admiring them too.

The other option is to have your cake and eat it too; literally! Settle down at that Dhaba that is authentically and regionally famous for trucks - Punjabi dhabas, Rajasthani Dhabas, Kathiawadi Dhabas, Andhra Dhabas - You will get to see these trucks from different regions park here while you can grab that Daal and Roti too.

Been there, done that and I certainly don't regret it for the love of roads:

Sitting at an Andhra Dhaba in the state of Odisha:



Tambi (Bro) in Gujju land:



Variety anyone?



When you want to obey the rules but still leave no chance to twist it:



Take that extra mile, plead twice and only then I shall honk:



When the King steps back while the queen pulls him away:



When on road, especially on major highways, it is this distinct artwork and the color scheme that an experienced driver would look at and guess where it belongs to and this gets interesting when you have company while you keep hitting the bulls-eye with each guess .

Although the article states that these days due to lot of DIY stickers the artwork has taken a backseat, I still feel there are majority of the trucks with modern brand names embracing that art culture to fullest.

In the end, the artwork also reminds the drivers of their home and they truly miss home even when they call their trucks a Home:

[itwasntme]

I was quite sure that quite a few years back MoRTH and state RTOs banned the very act of painting such iconic graphics on truck bodies, and the art died out slowly due to this act.

Googled but could not locate any such article. Is it true or am I getting confused by the banning of the ubiquitous "Horn OK Please" logo?

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Googled but could not locate any such article. Is it true or am I getting confused by the banning of the ubiquitous "Horn OK Please" logo?

Should be it.

'Horn OK Please' Banned for Trucks in Maharashtra

[GTO]

These colourful trucks certainly brighten up the highway . On every highway drive, one will see at least a handful of trucks where the owner has clearly spent a lot of time decorating his steed. Perhaps as much time & effort as a socialite spends on her hair, bags & shoes. We might not agree with some of the gawdy end results, but we must appreciate the thought behind them.

[V.Narayan]

Truck art is a part of our culture as much as the Indian Railway station and ubiquitous road side dhaba. It is in fact a tradition in South Asia and South East Asia. May it live long and not get squashed by daft minded RTOs.

[SS-Traveller]

Truck art is gradually becoming a lost art, more insipid today than even a couple of decades ago. To counter that, there are more lights and reflector strips decorating our HTVs, which is not entirely a bad thing considering that visibility improves. OTOH, Pakistani truck art (and the art of building wildly non-aerodynamic structures on trucks) is on a different plane altogether.

[thoma]

Not exactly related, but there has been a new trend on the container trucks that transport new cars. The longer sides of the containers are striped from metal and replaced by flex hoardings, of course bearing an advertisement.

[blackwasp]

As mentioned by others, highway trips would be boring without these trucks. Trucks are the literal lifeline of the nation and most drivers spend weeks, if not months away from home. This art is nothing but customisation of their home away from home cum office.

Originally Posted by paragsachania

If you miss bumping into this 'Art Truck' you still have the simplest of option to head towards the nearest National highway, preferably one that connects cross country sections (Mumbai - Ahmedabad - Delhi, Mumbai - Nashik -Indore, Mumbai - Bangalore - Chennai, Delhi - Nagpur - Hyderabad - Nagpur, Krishnagiri - Palakkad - Kochi, Delhi - Calcutta, Vijaywada - Odisha etc).

Indeed. However it is becoming lesser and lesser. While earlier 9/10 trucks would have such designs, these days about 6/10 are decked up on the outside. Clean is the new art.

Originally Posted by thoma

The longer sides of the containers are striped from metal and replaced by flex hoardings, of course bearing an advertisement.

OT, but these are called as curtain side trucks which help easier loading and unloading. Compared to regular car carriers, curtain side trucks can be less in width as you don't need space to open the car doors when getting them loaded/unloaded. In regular trucks, the width should be such that at least the driver door should be openable.

[Tejas@perioimpl]

So how many of you know the exact history of Horn Ok Please and why it was there in trucks?

This is the story my grandfather told me:

India in the early days had only 2 lane highways and overtaking with the underpowered cars was major planned exercise and if you had a truck in front of you, it was difficult to see and plan your move, especially at night.

You come in behind the truck and honk. So the words HORN PLEASE.

The truck driver if he sees at the opposite lane empty and good enough for overtaking would hit a switch. This would light up a small bulb above the OK words and it meant that you could start your overtaking manoeuvre.

Over the years, of course this got diluted and the bulb vanished and it became HORN OK PLEASE.

[Jeroen]

I love this truck art! I thought it was amazing.

I have come across quite a few trucks in different parts of India.

One day we were visiting Leh Ladakh and on the road to Pangong we came across these. The drivers were having a bit of lunch and a rest.

I had a little chat with them, they were very proud of their trucks!















Jeroen

[Malyaj]

I have also noted that truck drivers refer to their trucks in the feminine, with a certain degree of possessiveness and attach suffixes to them such as "queen", whereas others refer to it in the masculine. The more they are in love with their truck, the more they feel the need to decorate it (if they are owner-drivers). A plain truck may mean that the truck belongs to a fleet owner who has little patience with such art.

Also, while sloganeering at the rear of trucks is a pan India feature, extensive decorations are mostly restricted to Northern Indian states. The beautiful photos shared by Jeroen are from J&K, a state that borders Pakistan, where truck decorating is an olympic sport.

[vharihar]

I'm guessing that truck art initially began with the intent to let owners easily identify which amongst a plethora of trucks is theirs; hence they began unique truck arts. Perhaps also to make truck theft a bit difficult (as in, the stealer would need to put in extra effort to wipe out the truck art, to avoid being easily caught)

[thoma]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

I love this truck art! I thought it was amazing.

I have come across quite a few trucks in different parts of India.

Sharing a blog I came across, about the truck art in Kerala.

https://curlytraveller.com/2013/04/k...truck-art.html

[moralfibre]

You'll never know what this painter comes up with:

Link