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KR Bharti
Two bus accidents have taken place in quick succession recently in Himachal, killing scores of people. Accidents are a common phenomenon in the country. The mangled remains of vehicles tell the sordid story of accidents. Numerous blooming lives get muted or mutilated. Statistics reveal that man-made accidents are far more in number than those caused by mechanical failure. Rash driving has turned out to be one of the major causes of accidents.
The government, in its endeavour to minimise accidents, adopts various preventive and punitive measures. One is to create awareness through catchy slogans such as ‘Speed thrills but kills’; ‘I want you back home but not so fast’; ‘Someone is waiting for you at home’, etc.
But a slogan that I witnessed some years back, bamboozled me: ‘If married, divorce’. What a slogan! I exclaimed. Since the slogan was exhibited near a hospital, I tried to relate it to some health and family welfare programme. Could it be some new family planning measure, I mused. No, how can a sane government think of such a radical measure!
I paused at every slogan that I drove past in the rest of my journey. But this one eluded my eyes. I was so much seized of it that without delay I rang up the PWD authorities to know its nuance. But the authorities pleaded ignorance, adding quickly that someone might have played mischief with the slogan. I tried to view it from the angle of mischief too, but nothing struck me. Next day, I discussed this in my office, where colleagues turned blank and made fun of the slogan.
‘What a novel idea? No one seems happy with the institution of marriage. Everyone wants to wriggle out of it,’ some said. ‘Only a deaf husband and a blind wife can make marriage a success,’ others ridiculed.
The riddle remained unresolved and the busy office schedule effaced it from my memory. But after a year, when I was again on a journey, my eyes suddenly fell on a slogan on a rock. Our car had sped past it. I asked the driver to reverse the car. I read the slogan.
Eureka! The slogan that I had seen in the past was again in front of me in its complete and correct form. I discovered the missing link at long last: ‘If married, divorce speed’.
How the mischievous yet ingenious mind had tinkered with the slogan. The word ‘speed’ was skilfully removed from the slogan to alter its tone and tenor altogether!
I laughed in my sleeves and wondered at this wit and craft. The slogan now relieved me as much as it had intrigued me then.