Readers, thank you for your readership and your encouragement. Here are a few comments:
Murali wonders: “What happens when someone is hiding in the hills (like Veerappan)? Has he gone to the hills or taken to the woods or taken to the woods in the hills? 🤔”
Tarun Kunzru had this very different perspective. He says: “When I am golfing, I often take to the woods to find the ball that strayed. It's like running into a problem, as opposed to running from it. The penalty for taking the wooded scenic route in golf can prove costly.”
Manivannan says: “Our ancestors had their own way of 'taking to the woods’ at an old age and never to return – 'Vanaprasthashram' was a one-way ticket to the woods 🙂”
Lakshmi Raman says: “Only when you made the distinction between 'taking to the hills' and 'heading for the hills' did I think about the difference in meaning between the two. The hills have always symbolized refuge, and safety. The phrase from the Bible 'I lift my eyes unto the hills whence my help shall come.' is so apt.”
Dr. Naina says: “As usual well written and enjoyed reading it. I had, many a time, used ‘going to the hills’ inappropriately. Now I can use these two idioms with a lot better understanding and in the right context. I had retreated to the woods for a couple of years, but my passion for improving health care is making me resume active service, and it will be a long time before the hills beckon me.”
🚚 Truck or No Truck
The other day I was behind a huge truck that had all kinds of flowers and a fang-baring demon’s head with horns to boot. It was some kind of liquid carrier and on the tap-housing was written: “Swith Off”. I assumed the guy who painted that had a lisp, and he thought ‘switch’ should be painted the way he pronounced it.
The truck owner must have been superstitious, and he did not want anyone to cast eyes on the well-adorned rear of his truck. He had put out a warning in the vernacular reading “buri nazarwale tera mooh kala”, which means ‘If you cast your evil eyes, your face will be black’.
That’s not the end. On the bumper were written the words “Horn OK Please”. I wondered if the OK was with reference to the horns on the head of the demon or the horn of the truck. Since the word horn was used in the singular, I assumed it referred to the horn of the truck. But then why would anyone proclaim that the horn is ok? I can understand if the bumper proclaimed that the brakes are ok.
Why the ‘please’? Truckers are not exactly known to be courteous. So, to see ‘please’ on the bumper was very refreshing. As the traffic moved, so did the truck, and I analyzed the whole situation and concluded that the question mark is missing. It should have been “Horn, OK? Please” as if the trucker is requesting you to honk if you want him to let you overtake. By the way, when you are on the highway, after you honk, wait for the trucker to switch on the right-turn indicator to let you know that it is safe to pass. And as a matter of truckers’ code of conduct (if there’s one), you honk a ‘thank you’ as you are passing the driver, and in return, the driver will blow his air horn to say ‘you are welcome’ with two successive blasts or with one to say ‘mention not’.
There is no truckers’ compendium that supports all that I say. These are my own assumptions or observations. If you wish to know more about ‘Horn OK Please’ please click on this link 🔗The Origins of 'Horn OK Please,' India's Most Ubiquitous Phrase - Atlas Obscura
If you are not convinced by my logical observations, you can choose to have no truck with me.
That takes me to these interesting phrases: “have a truck with” or “have no truck with”. The former means ‘to team up or associated with’ and the latter means ‘have nothing to do with’ or ‘keep away’.
The word ‘truck’ is derived from an early French word ‘troque’ which came to be used in English as ‘truke’ and later became ‘truck’. The French word ‘troque’ meant a barter or exchange, and the same meaning was attributed to the English word ‘turke’. Apparently, its use was first seen in 1934 when transactions were done ‘by turke or exchange’.
Presumably, from the 17th century onwards, the word ‘turke’ morphed into ‘truck’ and the phrase ‘to have a truck with’ was used to mean ‘associating with’ or ‘communicating with’. In the modern context, ‘having truck with’ could be extended to ‘collaborating with someone’ or ‘partnering with someone’. Readers will agree that ‘to have a truck with’ has a negative connotation. It may mean connivance, conspiring with or even being a partner in crime. The phrase is hardly used in a complimentary manner to describe a business relationship or a partnership. Of course, if one enters into a partnership with an undesirable person, it could be like having a truck with a scheming shyster. If you missed my post on ‘Partnerships’, please read 🔗FC #23 at your convenience.
‘Have truck with’ is hardly used and has been replaced many years ago with the phrase ‘have no truck with’. If you are advised not to have a truck with someone or some situation, you are being cautioned or warned against associating with that person or situation. We may not be using the exact phrase, but when we counsel someone to refrain from associating with a person or a situation, we essentially say ‘don’t have any truck with them’.
What if you are compelled to deal with someone or a system that actually exposes you to some danger or loss, or causes some kind of prejudice? Take this commonplace example. You have been advised to not overextend yourself and incur debt that you can’t repay using your credit card. You are in the company of so-called friends who feed off you, and you find yourself being goaded into spending beyond your own contemplation. Having a truck with such friends is bound to expose you to some serious arm twisting by the credit card recovery agent, and you may, as FC 136 said, either take to the woods or to the hills, whichever provides a refuge, albeit for a little while.
Similar is the case of borrowing money at usurious interest rates. People end up paying three times the principal amount, if not more. Having truck with moneylenders who swear by Shylock can be extremely prejudicial and stressful. Usurious money lending is quite rampant despite a law passed way back in 1918. It was called The Usurious Loans Act of 1918. It was enacted to shield borrowers from private loan sharks who extracted exorbitant interest rates. People ended up getting into a cycle of usury as they borrowed money to repay the money already borrowed, unable to withstand the harassment by the lender’s goons.
The Act provided for the interference of courts where the loan transaction was usurious and was palpably unfair. But this law has had no effect and the loan market is ruling the roost. There are stories of film producers resorting to call money where if one borrows Rs. One Crore, he is paid only Rs.70 lakhs. A sum of Rs.30 Lakhs is IDS, i.e. interest deducted at the source! So, if one has a truck with such lenders, a truckload of problems and worries will haunt that person as he spends sleepless nights.
Apparently, way back in the 19th century, workers in the UK were forced to buy poor-quality goods at inflated prices from the shops owned by their employers as they worked in remote places with no access to markets. The master used to set off the inflated price of these goods against their wages. The workers had no choice but to have truck with such masters who were also shopkeepers, for fear of being unemployed. To remedy the situation and to make such profiteering a punishable offence, the Truck Act of 1887 was passed. It was indeed ironic that the Act was so named.
The same can be said of people who are led astray by addictions that start in a small way like drinking and smoking at parties and gradually spiralling out of control. Having truck with addicts is very dangerous and may be life-threatening.
Now to end in a lighter vein:
Did you hear about the guy who stole a truck carrying sanitizers? He made a clean getaway.
A Vicks VapoRub truck overturned on the freeway this morning. Amazingly, there was no congestion.
Dear Readers, I hope you will continue to have truck with me. It means a lot. Take care!
It’s a call for other drivers to honk their horns when overtaking the truck; a long-standing tradition on Indian roads.
Depending on which region they’re from, you’ll see Hindi, Muslim, Sikh, and Christian iconography,” said photographer Dan Eckstein, who traveled over 10,000kms of the country for his book “Horn Please: The Decorated Trucks of India.”
The richly painted exterior, with images of gods and goddesses, Bollywood stars, and political logos say much about the person behind the wheel.
It’s a job which entails long months on the road, and these hefty vehicles transformed into mobile homes away from home, kitted out with bunk beds and photos of loved ones far away.
Since they’re missing their kids and wives, they like to decorate their trucks with ornaments to remind them of home.
India is one of few countries where we have messages behind buses and lorries to Sound Horn. Othere countries do not horn unless they see some indiscipline in the road. Horn OK Please is possibly an Invention a by truckers after a good amount of drinks in a dhaba