Unauthorised OOH media in India -- Learning to live with it!

In the ever surging keenness to advance by India's endless army of ambitious men, an endless array of tactics are used. From supplicating the Gods, to vows of penance and good deeds. From fasts to avoidance of meat or alcohol on certain days each week. Some even abjure food itself of any sort claiming the dual purpose of health and wealth, whether material or spiritual. This brigade has no less a persona than the Prime Minister of our country who eschewed food even as he toured the land of plenty -- the good old US of A.

When so much determination is shown by the powers that be to get ahead in life, can the business community be far behind? From erecting temples through the length and breadth of the land to gifting solid gold doors to their preferred deities to lying supplicant before the idols and images held in profound faith and belief to hold the key to their success. From cricket tsars to Bollywood stars, from politicians to polygamous philanderers, everyone tries any and everything they possibly can to get ahead.

Whether on the way to the temple to pray or on the way to the race course to play, no one else must get ahead. Even in traffic. After all, resources are limited and the Gods can only help so many people. It is therefore necessary to get ahead, to be first in the queue, to offer more than the others to get the favours of the Gods. If in the hurry-scurry a few get trampled, well that is not of any great concern. Simply put it down to their karma. The fault was no doubt theirs -- if not in this life, then in some mysterious past life.

We have a pantheon of Gods in our beautiful land. Some great, some greater and some lesser. We have many authorities in our country. Some powerful, some with all-consuming authority and others of lesser importance. At the very top come the ministers and party politicians of national stature, whose nod beckons fortune to open its very heart to provide largesse, whether in the form of physical coal to be mined for gold or to convert the very air itself through the magical alchemy of 2G bandwidth into an endless supply of an insane number of zeros to the bank accounts of the chosen few. To put it mildly, Gods have themselves come to earth to dispense favour to the chosen ones....and the lesser Gods?

Why they dispense outdoor sites through the executive power of their bureaucratic pens. For sufficient supplication the sites metamorphose into 'rights' over different projects of a size and period depending on the 'sacrifice' possible. The old boys network doesn't quite work in our 'desi' economy. It is more contact, fitting and setting. A lot of supplication and a brown envelope leads one to the promised land, with the unwritten consent of go forth and multiply...

But then the Gods who have now adopted human form are subject to the same compulsions of men -- ambition, avarice and greed. But they do not worship. They simply assign to themselves through a human mediacy. So enters the time honoured and well tested tradition of 'benami' transactions which grant rights and privileges to some. Procedures and tenders be damned, there is always a way around troublesome rules and laws. We are the masters of loopholes, of twisting language and phrases to mean the opposite of what is so piously being publicly maintained. The actual beneficiary is well hidden behind the screen of a thousand sycophants.

If this maze is not scary enough, there arises the complications of 50 Shades of Gray. Delhi more than any other city is prone to this syndrome. Simply put, it is sadism at its best. What one authority proposes, another disposes. If the Railways auctions the site, the Municipal Authority declares it in violation of its sacred code of benefiting from every possible transaction.

If the PWD tenders sites, all hell breaks loose after the cheque is encased and a variety of authorities descend on the concessionaire braying for their pound of flesh. Naturally, the sites violate traffic safety. And, of course, the Municipal body's obscure rules and by-laws passed some 50 years ago have been so rudely transgressed. Besides, the Municipal Commissioner's wife thinks they are ugly. Naturally, the nature lovers and myriad groups of activists are deeply offended and alert citizen groups to demonstrate and protest. Suddenly, all problems disappear and the sites see light of day (and night). No doubt the ancient forms of worship at the feet of the all powerful deities in their new avatar and the fulfilment of vows of largesse have found favour. Until, of course, the court intervenes.

You would consider this dramatisation? Ask any 'large concessionaire'. But ask him later in the evening when the tension of the day has evaporated with spiritual enlightenment courtesy the better part of Scotland's greatest bottled contribution to mankind. Then, you will hear the stories flow and the adjectives used will not only be true but will better reflect the current state of affairs. But we are hardy, we Indians. We learn to adapt and we thrive or try to, at least. In recent years the trying has overtaken thriving, but we live in eternal hope. Hope not that the system will be repaired but that tomorrow my Gods will hear my plea. In the meanwhile, so what if I am losing money. At least, I'm losing less than that @&/:? who is my neighbour and closest competitor. Truly The Gods have blessed me!