My mind seems to meander towards the fact, that the essence of communications lies in fulfilling its purpose. All else, including form, grammar, spacing et al, are frills. (My own ‘de-formed’ writing needs some solace). Obviously, essence lies in meaning !!

Problems arise, when form interferes with meaning ! Because of the way in which the communication is delivered ! When meaning and the core essence reaches the recipient differently !That’s at worst !

At their best, however, communication manages to serve its purpose (of communicating intended meaning to the recipient) in a form that may not be correct, culturally, grammatically, contextually etc. Now that can get a laughter or at least a smile. Ok. At least a few chuckles.

It can also perhaps be greeted by the click of a camera ! So, here are the results of a few. clicks. Feel free to share some more that you have come across !

‘Beware’ is not the same as ‘being aware’. Yes i am aware of that. But, the meaning is conveyed here is straight forward ! At least it is to me. There is Dog inside the house. Period. That is suffice ! It has been a long held belief that in such cases ‘awareness’ is suffice. Liking you or otherwise is the dog’s choice. Not yours. So !

This was in the office canteen, where each day’s menu is written out. This was the menu for an evening snack. All i could understand was the ‘Samosa’ part ! ‘Coktal‘ i didnt get. I thought of ‘Cocktail’, but this was the office & things don’t add up. Nevertheless, if you do know, please do write in with the recipe of a cocktail somasa pls.

I found this at the Hiranandani Construction site at Powai. I thought of it as an important message to workers, urging them to eschew the helmet ! I loved the picture, and the write up that came along with it, about a carpenter whose life was saved because of the helmet. If it was targeted at the workers, i wonder why it was in English ?!?

This snap got me intrigued enough to make me look up ‘Households’ ! I was relieved that my understanding still held ground. ‘Households’ are people. Quite obviously ‘people’ didn’t figure in any of the items on sale! The meaning reaches. And perhaps along with the meaning came a devious smile to my lips. Complimenting my devious mind !

This was clicked in Madurai. I think it was at the office of the District Forest Officer ! For sometime i couldn’t figure ‘yahi hay rightchoice plantingatree’ meant ! Coming from the Forest Office, i thought it was about ‘hay’ ! And then I it connected to Pepsi’s famous ad ! OK, we could do with some more space between the letters. ( You can watch the Pepsi ad here, for nostalgia’s sake !)

I still wonder what this line can do to an average Madurai resident as he walks by !

This was at the Ahmedabad airport. I couldn’t figure this for sometime. ‘Laptop comfort zone on backside’ !! After battling it for sometime, i walked to the rear of this hoarding, and found plug points for recharging your laptop. Ok. So that’s Laptop comfort zone. On the backside !

Tirupati bus stand has an overdose of passengers. Perhaps there have been one too many a verbose complaint, that had elaborate & intimate inputs on the weather at Tirupati and such else ! So, the call to be precise. The ‘only’ is almost like an afterthought ! Almost like a threat that anything other than precise will not be read !!!

Reminds me of the Channel V ad, which went, ‘We are like this only !’ That became such an ‘essence’ for English the Indian way !

I had a tough time locating a few other classics that i had clicked sometime ago. Nevertheless, this post brought to me memories of those cities and the signs themselves evoked a chuckle !

What to do. I am like this only !