Driving a point

CATCHY PHRASES

You could call them ‘bees in the bonnet’. We are talking about the ‘in-your-face’ one-liners that cars sport. They are generally seen on the front or the rear glasses of a car and some of them are nasty.

There are those who stick to the same one-liner for years together while a few others find pleasure in changing them often, as and when they get hold of better ones.
Most young men and women resort to sticking such teasers on their cars as they believe they are making a statement.

The starker it is the better. Lines like ‘Screw it, let’s do it’ and ‘You remain young only once’ and many such one-liners instantly catch people’s attention.

Metrolife spoke to a few people on what they think of this trend. While some found it pretty exasperating and a distraction while driving, others said they enjoyed reading such stickers when stuck in a traffic jam.   Sticking these one-liners is always about sending out a message to the onlookers. It could either be positive or something nasty.

Either way, people say they are interested in reading them and also dub them as a form of art.

Anamika Iyengar, a banker, thinks it’s a pretty cool trend. “If it’s about a brand, then stickers make for some great marketing and they also come as a relief when one is stuck in an endless traffic jam,” she says. “There are some innovative stickers that are really catchy. The cliched one-liners are boring,” she adds.

Maria Jimmy, who works with Nolte, says she wouldn’t mind snatching some time to read these one-liners whenever she’s not in a hurry.

 “Anyway, Bangalore’s roads are clogged most of the time. So invariably, one has enough time to read such stuff. I always enjoy reading something funny and wacky,” she says. But Maria thinks cars look most attractive when left untouched.

Then there are those who love sticking stuff on their cars. Like Prakruthi N Banwasi, an educationalist, who has stuck ‘I might be slow but I am ahead of you’ on his vehicle. He reasons that this message is meant for all the reckless riders.

Prakruthi thinks the young ride very carelessly these days. “Sticking one-liners is an expression in a certain sense. It also breaks the monotony of traffic woes. I always look out for these one-liners,” he says.

But Yogita, a businesswoman, thinks otherwise. “It’s alright if the sticker is small but there are people who stick really big ones. That is thoroughly distracting. I think these stickers also say a great deal about the person at the wheel,” she says.    

Psychologists find these one-liners repulsive and say those starved for attention  resort to such things. It could also be an attempt by the driver to define his or her interests.

Sudha Thimmaiah, a counsellor, says, “People choose a particular sticker because they like to identify with it. It could be someone sticking something on wildlife to show his interest in it. Or it could be an attempt to draw some attention,” says Sudha.

She sees no harm in such a trend. “It says a great deal about the person at the wheel,” she sums up.