All autos in Bangalore have things written on them; names of family
members, loved ones, cinema idols, or at least the names of various
cars that the auto-drivers hope their vehicles are like!

So I was rather surprised to see a national AND parochial message on this auto:

Though it is in Kannada script, it says, phonetically, "I love India…I like Mandya"!

Good to know that as well as being a patriotic Indian, he likes the sugar belt of Karnataka, too, and finds enough sweetness in the fact to have it painted on his auto….

Though this particular auto whizzed past too fast for me to ask the driver about the messages, I spoke later to Nooruddin, who had the names of members of his family painted on his auto (Hai Naseem/Rafeek"). "Ithu namma mane samana" (this auto is like a home to us), he said. "So we like to paint on messages that will remind us about what we like…many of us paint on the message about our loving India."

Dorairaj (28) who drives an auto predominantly in the M G Road area, says that if his "native place" had a name that rhymed with India like Mandya does, he would use it, too! But he comes from Gulbarga, he shrugs. ⊕