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So this sign is on a little food stall I walk past sometimes.
Here you can see it in it’s regular pitch, in front of a wedding hall. Just behind the cart, you can see the micro temple for blessing the happy couple.
This was taken a month or so back when everything was lit up for Diwali. There’s a whole bunch of festivals that time of year – so people tend to put up their lights and leave them up for months till after Christmas, occasionally after Pongal, which is this weekend and is the harvest festival.
Anyway, I walk past this place quite often. It seems reasonably popular and sells dosa and chat and the like.
I’d been past a fair bit before I spotted that it had a slogan under the name.
“the taste of Indian Soil”
Excuse me?
The taste of India, fair enough.
But the taste of Indian Soil?
Who wants to eat dirt? Or are they telling us something about the food preparation that would be best kept secret?
And while I’m about it, why is Soil capitalised?
As marketing goes it really does seem to be utterly devoid of point.
Someone’s really trying hard – it’s a shiny new cart, shiny new signs. It even has such modern urban conveniences as a rubbish bin to put your cardboard plate in after you’ve finished (and that’s unheard of luxury round here).
The owners have obviously been thinking of ways to make their cart different from other peoples (it’s authentic, it’s homey, it’s Indian).
But really, get a grip and remove the soil from your food cart.
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PS – In the top shot, if you look carefully you can see one of those lethal wayside electricity stations – again, just right there beside the walkway. Shudder.
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This sign is part of our regular series, Signage Sundays, where I indulge my obsession for all things sign related (and, I confess, occasionally, a few things that aren’t sign related as well – but it is mostly signs, and mostly Indian signs at that).
If you’d like to read more check out these vaguely related posts
Or look at the complete list of Signage Sundays.
Do please comment below, sign up for the newsletter, so you don’t miss anything sign related, or tell your friends all about it till they feel compelled to sign up themselves…
Woah! I just thought they’re selling a soil in there cart. That is a mess, Lol. Well, never seen cart name that before.
Not great marketing, eh? It sounds so unappealing.
I read “Lilli on Wheels – the taste of Indian Soil” and immediately – the image of a lady crashing head first into the dirt from her bicycle – sprang into my mind.
I was wondering – perhaps there’s an Indian expression about crops coming from the earth, that just translates badly…?
Well so far everyone locally that I’ve shown that pic to has looked as confused as I have. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t translate well from a language round here… just that I’ve not spoken to the right people yet. There are just so many Indian languages.