English Written in Hindi

English has always been common in India, but I saw more on this trip than ever before.  Some will (strongly) disagree, but I got the sense that English may take over as the only language in the (distant) future.

Bookstores seem to sell books primarily in English.  (Side note- why is a copy of "Mein Kampf" in the middle of that pile of books being sold?)

The omnipresence of English has created an interesting paradox....  Visitors to India benefit greatly from learning to read the Hindi script....

Why?  Because a lot of the written "Hindi" was actually English written in Hindi script.

(ie- the script below spells out "National Insurance Company Limited" exactly).

Apparently some regional laws now *enforce* that the local language (Hindi, Marathi, etc) be included in store signs....  The existence of these laws themselves is more evidence to me of English's dominance.

Often even "real" Hindi itself is half in English, so you can usually figure out what a sign says.  The sign below says "5 saal tuk pregnancy se tension free"