From Indian long-distance truck

What does a long-distance truck look like? Before today, I would tell you that it should look big, solid and reliable. However, after a great number of Indian trucks passed by, my idea about it totally changed.

My interests to those trucks started after the visit to W+K in Delhi. In that presentation, the woman showed us a TV commercial for a simple-design best-seller of Nokia. The TV commercial was created based on the attitude of Indian truck drivers to their truck. I was interested when she mentioned the long-distance drivers' love affair with their truck – it sounded like a relationship with an object in a religious country.

Luckily enough, on the way to Agra, there were a lot of long-distance trucks passed by, and stopped by. I noticed that it is true that the drivers do care about their trucks as the trucks are painted pretty and sometimes with religious decorations. However, the truck itself looked like a real-size toy to me. The truck looked so fragile that it seemed to be wrapped with one thin iron sheet. In my opinion, rather than rely on worship the god and decorate the truck, the first thing for a long-distance truck driver to consider is safety. However, after checking carefully every truck passed by, my impression was upset. What further enhanced my big-toy impression about those trucks was the alarm of them. In noticed that only those long-distance trucks have that kind of alarm, "wuli wuli," sounded a bit like a toy whistle we used while watching a live sports game.

As Indians place high value on reliability and sustainability (such as the love for stainless steel utensil), I was wondering how they view this issue? Then in The Power of The Imperfect Solution, I found some explanations. The "chalta hai" attitude - lack of desire for quality - results in the acceptance of almost-good-enough solutions. That is rooted in the world view of Indians that they perceive the world quite differently from their western counterpart. They believe imperfection is ever-lasting, because the world is ever-changing in a continuous manner. So maybe the Indian truck drivers also think that the truck is not built perfectly, but that is what is "almost good enough" to use for their job presently. And they appreciate this tool… Oh, we cannot call it a tool because they view the truck as their wife, whose responsibilities are similar to wives at home – they gain the respect and care due to their fulfillment of their work.. In other words, the usefulness.

Another possible reason for the design of the truck might have something to do with Indians’ attitude towards traffic. When pedestrians, motorcycles, three wheelers, scooters, as well as other vehicles are "competing" on the road, Indians have a mystical way to keep the traffic flowing without many accidents. As pedestrians and motorcycles might be more fragile than a long-distance truck, and their safety and position in traffic are taken for granted, why not the big truck?

Anyway, smart Indians have their solutions (to comfort).