In the beginning of July 1938, the rear mudguards of all bicycles in Chennai started looking uniformly white, thanks to a sudden rush among cyclists to get a coat of white paint. The frenzy was triggered by a rumour that spread across the city in a matter of a few days that the government had introduced a new rule demanding white-painted rear mudguards.
Debunking the rumour, D.C.T. Cameron, the then Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Madras, according to a report published in The Hindu on July 12, 1938, said even actual orders issued by the authorities had never been so quickly and readily obeyed.
