Airports can be compared to small cities. And just like in some cities, weird things can happen in them. We’ve written about some of these things in the past:
- Why Denver Int’l Airport once had a huge, hidden pile of luggage
- How much one city loved its airport’s carpeting
- Why Chicago’s O’Hare Int’l Airport has no Terminal 4
- That time when 2 Florida airports had a tweet war over…Chili’s?
But sometimes you’ll see something about an airport on the internet and say, “Nah, this just CAN’T be real.” Case in point…
As far back as 2015, a photo, allegedly taken at Chennai Int’l Airport in India, was circulating on the internet. The blue sign, supposedly from the Airports Authority of India and left near one of the airport terminal’s Gate 4, said that, by order, “S**ting on carpet strictly prohibited.”
(NOTE: Photo below contains language that is NSFW.)
We won’t go into the stereotype this sign suggests. But it was easy enough to find out what the sign had originally said, since the verbiage was in Hindi as well as English.
The Hindi text “Farsh par khana sakht mana hai” roughly translates into English as “Eating on the carpet is strictly prohibited.”
Of course, even as early as 2015, it was easy enough to Photoshop a picture, which was apparently what was done…not just once (as in above photo), but twice. Another version of the sign, which began circulating around the same time, prohibited “eating carpet” (IYKYK).
(NOTE: Once again, photo below contains language that is NSFW.)
I scoured the internet and originally couldn’t find a photo of the original sign. And then one of our readers, who calls Chennai Int’l Airport his home airport, saved the day.
So nope, the sign never said to not eat carpet or to not poop on it. Just to not eat on the carpet.
*** Many thanks to Aniruddh S. for his help!
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3 comments
As it happens, I’m from Chennai, and have been taking quite a few flights every month for the last 20 or more years from this terminal. I thought this particular set of photoshopped pics had run its course.
This started at a time when the powers that be, faced much bashing about the then-recent upgrades to the airport, one consequence of which was a leaky roof (I’ve seen that in person). Even the original pic of “eating carpet” is photoshopped (since the Hindi one clearly translates to “eating on the carpet prohibited”), and was a malicious attempt to add fuel to the fire of the leaky roof.
So, yeah…both the pics in this post (not your fault, of course!!!) are photoshopped. I recall having taken a picture of the original, myself. I will send it to you if I can locate it !
Hi! Thanks for the insight – very interesting! If you can find the your picture of the original, I would LOVE to include it. Best place to send it would be info@yourmileagemayvary.com Thanks so much!
When I worked at ATL, there were a number of areas on the ramp such as behind the egress stairways from the gate areas, with signs (I believe put there by Continental) saying “DO NOT PEE HERE”