By Shivansh Gupta
In these days of ‘Acche Din’ where we are aspiring for smart cities and encouraging Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, the dirty flyers posted on walls are the basic things to start with. They not only destroy the aesthetics of a city but also contribute to pollution.
Two things you will surely see whenever you go out past midnight. First being a gang of street dogs who would have never sniffed anything fishy about you but as it is their prime time for business, they will bark at you like there is no tomorrow. Second thing yo will notice is two-three people on bikes with a bucket and hand full of glue and bundles of printed paper. They are the night poster-wala force. They act as nimbly as a professional chef cuts onions. They will come, one will do the pasting and others, like a meerkat, will watch for the coming vehicles and within minutes they will be off and then the place is inflicted with the flyer-pox.
Flyposting is a marketing strategy in which advertisement is done by placing or posting posters or flyers in legal or illegal place. While flyposting is commonplace, it is often viewed as a nuisance due to issues with property rights. In India, the Election Commission has banned this practice, but it continues relentlessly.
Flyers are everywhere and mostly contains about coaching institutes, politicians, university election candidates, B-grade movies and hakeems trying to improve your sex life, and for all those who have a habit of reading everything they see on the road, it is irritating. By now I would have memorized the periodic table by heart if coaching institutes had cared enough to paste it instead of their advertisements which mostly constitutes fake selections of fake students.
They are so ubiquitous that if one looks down from the sky, the country would look like a collage made of thousands and thousands of flyers.
Walls, flyovers, underpasses, university campuses and street lamp poles are the most affected areas. Buses, autos, rickshaws, you name it, they all have their asses covered by flyers. And if these people find your vehicle they will not hesitate to cover it. “Stick No Bills” and “yahan peshaab karna mana hai” are the two most sought after places by their perpetrators.
One can place as many hoardings and posters on your private owned buildings, there is no need to stick them on street walls and on public transports. Moreover, most of those walls have drains along with them which are often clogged by the dried and blown off posters and the ones which do not clog drains, clogs the food pipes of our holy cows.
So instead of ranting about pollution, GO FLYER FREE.
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