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Comment by kelvin0 | Hacker News Reader

No where in the article do they even try to ask the people who own or paint these words on the vehicles? Speculation throughout and not a shred of input from any of the people actually involved (Drivers, Lettering painters, police..).

Conclusion: none! We don't know and didn't ask either.

Really weird article.

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I've asked and they don't know for the most part either. It's become tradition at this point and it's not known by the drivers or the painters why. It's just cute

Most of them don’t speak English either — this is merely something that has to go on your lorry.

OK Please ask them in whatever language they speak.

Lol, I don’t think the parent was suggesting that they can’t answer because the interviewer was only asking them in English, but rather they don’t know what the English phrase means precisely most of the time

Not speaking English, doesn't imply they don't understand English words or phrases that have gotten into what languages they do speak.

Why I mean is you can’t ask them “why is OK in the middle of the phrase” because the answer is “that’s how it goes”.

No different from asking an English speaker how some foreign loan word entered their usage or why, say, only the accusative. “Agenda” is singular in English and if you asked a random person on the street why they would shrug.

Unfortunately this is similar to how most of the western press covers India.

The author should "do the needful" as my Indian colleagues would say.

Especially considering the title is "the origins of...". Should probably instead be "the unknown origins of".

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