India’s swashbuckling truck-drivers have been pimping their rides for as long as anyone can remember. The resultant trucks, or “lorries,” are moving canvases that make a visual honk as loud as a claxon. Peace and love are popular themes along with social messages like “Don’t drink and drive,” and “We Two, Ours One,” an apparently ineffective family planning slogan made popular in the 1970s.

Why do they do it? Pride, for one thing, but it’s also true that when you spend most of your time on the road, your vehicle becomes home. This might explain why the lorries are often referred to as sons (beta), daughers (beti), and—we’re assuming this refers to a certain kind of wife—“tigresses” (shernee).

If you want to meet the guys responsible for these splashy automobiles, head for Wadi Bunder, an area located south of Chitrapati Shivaji Terminal, the headquarters of the Central Railway. The best place to view their art, however, is probably the highway (or here, in our Street Art album).