Hoardings and press advertisements have a story to say, about the state of the economy.
You know which sector’s booming and shouting itself hoarse.
We cannot forget the many dot com brands that stared you in your face, in 1999-2000. We know what happened to them after the bust.
In recent months, we have seen at times, the boards dominated by Airtel / Vodafone / Reliance… the telecom wars.
We have also seen Nokia / Samsung / Motorola / LG.. the mobile phone wars.
The eternal fighters, Coke and Pepsi, or Levers and Colgate / P&G have been consistently around.
Then there was a spurt in the retail world. And you could not go 100 meters without seeing hoardings of Lifestyle or Big Bazaar or Pantaloons..
Finally came the realty chappies. And you had big buildings and swimming pools and gardens to see on hoarding as one brand lured you after another, to get you into their new construction projects!
Then, the economy went down..
For a while, the hoardings were barren and you could see the many messages of the hoarding owners.. Some with their phone numbers to reach out to, some with a public service message.. waiting for someone to pick them up!
And yesterday the new reality struck me. At least in one specific stretch of the road. Going from Sion towards Chembur, on the Sion Trombay road, we pass the Everard Nagar / Somaiya College grounds.
On both sides of this road, as well as on the lampposts in the middle of the road, are hoardings of some Gurus. The religion “brands” if I may say so. And therein, lies the bigger message.
That when times are tough, everyone turns to God…. ! ‘Tis HIS season now.. !
Random Musings 