THE HORN IS YOUR FRINED!

If you thought cricket was the national “sport” (no mistake the brackets are to indicate that cricket is not actually a sport! Otherwise hide and seek must be in the Olympics!), well it’s not. Honking is actually the national sport.

If you are driving down any of the millions of Km of “roads” (still not a mistake) of this country a horn is more necessary than a tires. I rather drive a car with tree tires but with a horn rather then 4 wheels and no horn.

A horn is like a good friend in the car. In some (rare) cases it can even save your life, but most of all it keeps you company during the drive. It “talks” more then your radio, and in a language that everyone understands.

It is used for several reasons but the most common scenarios are:

1. When ANYTHING in front of you is slower. It can be a truck loaded with a castle on it, as well as an innocent child riding his bike.

2. To signal your presence on the street whenever something faster is cutting your way or passing you.

3. As a mystic experience. Some say that the redundant sound produced by the car is used by some taxi drivers to reach the higher level of meditation. In this case however a big part of the credit for the experience has to go to the fumes produced by the cars. How the whole mechanism works is a mystery.

An even bigger mystery however is the reason why everyone is in a hurry! None comes on time and none is expected to! (I know you think that said by an Italian is funny!)

In Pakistan there is always time for chai (see previous post). So why rushing when you are on the street to get wherever you are going and stop to get a chai???

That remains a mystery.

And last senario

4. To get precedence over a same size vehicle. Bigger size vehicles in fact have precedence over smaller, but when it is a close call then the quicker to honk gets it.

Bottom line one should honk whenever is passing or is in sight of something slower, or something faster is passing him/her or for company or is close to a crossing, or changing lane or there is anything around him/her, or, lastly, whenever in doubt that any of the above is about to happened.

If in doubt whether to honk or not, just remember; no one has ever got mad for being honked at, and……horn is your friend!