'Indian Railway's Wordsmith (Slogan writer) chugs ahead of all others' by K.J.S.Chatrath

Wordsmiths seem to be in great demand now a days.

It is a tough creative job as it is not easy to come out with catchy, interesting, positive and relevant slogans  on development day after day.

The Wordsmith of Indian Railways seems to have chugged ahead of all others.Take a look at what railway's quarter page advertisement in newspapers today says:

"प्रगति के २ साल 

भारतीय रेल बेमिसाल।"

Of course I have a problem with the second part of the above slogan. 'Bemisal' means something  which has no similar example.  Here one has to look for examples from similarly placed organisations. Remember the saying about not comparing apples with oranges. One can not compare Indian Railways with any other organsiation as it is in a monopoly situation and no other organisation runs trains which could have been compared with, or example of which could have been cited. So, in my view the use of the word 'Bemisal' is not right.  It seems to have been chosen just because it rhymes well with 'saal'!

Then there is announcement of a  "रेल हमसफ़र सप्ताह- सात दिन, सात मुहीम". 

Here too I am not happy with the use of the word 'humsafar'. Humsafar means a co-passenger and does not convey any clear meaning in  this context. A better word, perhaps, could have been 'yatri'.

Now let us see the seven fresh slogans-  for each day of the week. Take a look:

२६  मई - स्वछता दिवस;

२७ मई - सत्कार दिवस;

२८  मई -  सेवI दिवस;

२९ मई - सतर्कता दिवस;

३० मई - सामंजस्य दिवस;

३१ मई - संयोजन दिवस, और

१ जून  - संचार दिवस

And to drum it in further, in the end it says -  रेल बड़े, देश बड़े 

Phew.....I dont know about others, but after this I don't want to see another slogan for another week!

Ah...If only slogans could take the Indian Railways ahead!

 

By the way, I am a self professed admirer of Indian Railways and at 73+, still regularly undertake and enjoy  long distance rail journeys.

Let me end by adding a slogan of my own, "I love Indian Railways"

Confused? Uh?

  .....
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Email: kjschatrath@yahoo.co.in; chatrath@gmail.com