I haven’t reviewed a book for a long time so when I got an
offer to review Ajay Jain’s book I jumped at the opportunity. Which self respecting travel Junkie would say to no to reviewing a travelogue !
Well not exactly a travelogue. You can’t really call "Peep Peep Don’t Sleep" a
travelogue per se. It’s a very interesting book by Ajay Jain that is basically
a compilation of amusing road signs that Ajay clicked during his travels. As
most of us know, Ajay Jain is a full
time writer, professional blogger and photographer. He is also founder of the
fabulous travel café Kunzum.
Ajay travelled by road for over 10,000 kms, mostly
in the mountains and most of the road signs he clicked and compiled into this book have been put up by the
BRO(Border
Roads Organization).
While travelling through the mountains, the journey is never
boring because the scenic beauty around us is always enthralling be it the
rugged mountains of Ladakh or the lush greenery of Himachal.
But what make the
journey even more interesting are the road signs
by BRO. You cant really miss the road signs put up by them if you have travelled in areas adjoining the Pakistan, China or Nepal border. I can vouch for the fact that the BRO road signs are a sight worth
looking out for !
The BRO men don’t believe in putting up just simple boring road signs. Instead their road signs are witty and quirky. I like
to think that the BRO men are a creative lot who are stuck high in the
mountains and the only way they get to unleash their creativity is through the
road signs they put up.Their road signs combine humour, caution, wisdom and philosophy all in to one !
Ajay’s collection is vast and fascinating.Here are a few samples from the book.
It seems the BRO authorities are actually wagging a finger
of admonishment signs such as
or something like
The BRO also tries to be witty with signs such as [Go Slow on my curves] and [darling
I like you but no so fast].
The English may be funny at times but they do
manage to get the point across!
They also get philosophical and give you advice on how to
live your life well.
They are also quite proud of their achievements and rightly
so.And they show it through such road signs:
A lot of people don’t pay attention to things like road
signs while they travel. They concentrate on the scenery, click a few
photographs of the nature around them and zoom off to the next destination.
That is what makes Ajay's book so different. He looks at travel from a vastly different angle and perspective, and manages to capture something most of us would have missed.
This book is a must buy for all the quirky travellers out
there !
(All images have been taken from the website Peep Peep Dont Sleep.
