W+K, New Delhi

In 2011, Hanif Kureshi (Sr. Creative at W+K, New Delhi) launched a website www.handpaintedtype.com to promote the hand painted signs and street typography of India. When we met Hanif, he shared his views about the hand painted signs and the painters who had worked with him. He told us how difficult it was for him to do this project and also the reasons that were resulting in the art form dwindling in its practice. According to Hanif, some of these painters are “unprofessional” as they didn’t deliver work on time and had a lot of excuses for not doing the work. According to Hanif, “The painters consider themselves as artists and not painters, and that is the reason why they sign their own names on the painter signboards or truck backs.”

Istling and I have been in Delhi for a week now. After exhausting our options in Delhi to know more about the art form, we have decided to venture out to nearby cities/states. We definitely want to visit Sirhind, a name that kept coming up while we were interviewing people. Sirhind is one of the most famous places in Punjab for truck body building. So once we got back home after the meeting with Hanif, we googled about the ways to reach Sirhind. The best possible option that showed up was to take a bus.