Self-appraisal club.

I thought it was only in Hyderabad. But after seeing it in a couple of other places as well, I have confirmed that human tendency to blow his own trumpet is constant all over. Yes, I am talking about the annoying life-size Flex banners that are up in the city and villages when there is an event or when there isn't. Obviously paid for by the subject or beneficiary of the banner, we see a lot of self-publicity. I am sure that this is what happens. The following are the most common features of a political or non political self-publicizing flex banners.

• If it is a Congress banner,First row left top to right top, you will see Sonia Gandhi, Late Dr. YSR, Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi, Y S Jagan, Veerappa Moily,etc.
• This first row changes with the political party. This is customized accordingly
• Second Row, the man who sponsored the banner with HUGE mustaches standing or walking against a backdrop of 
• Temple if it is a religious occasion
• Lord Ganesha if its Ganesh Chaturti
• Durga Mata if it is Bonalu/Dussehra
• LION if there is no occasion....make it a GROWLING lion
• No matter who he is, his designation will always be, "Senior Leader"
• The subject or the main man to whom the banner dedicated is either one or many of the below
• is gesturing a 'Namaste' which means, 'I am here to screw your happiness.'
• is actually very dark and his face has been photoshopped to look fair as far as possible though he ends up looking like Sadashiv Amrapurkar to say the best. In most cases, photographs taken before 1994 only are used.
• is smiling and seems to be very happy as if he just had sex
• is holding a cell phone and speaking into it. ARRGGGH
• Slogans written on the banner piss me off more than anything else. A sample:
• After Dr. YSR passed away, a youth congress leader put up a huge hoarding and writes, "People's wish to see Jagan as CM." Hello. Which people? I never wished so.
• The best part of these banners are the two bottom rows where you have photographs of jobless drunk men who have one or many of the following
• You will find at least one of the these four names - Raju, Mallesh, Srinu and Yadagiri
• The youth will have hairstyles weirder than the barber shop catalog they used to have until 1993 with baby cutting, baba cutting and roman cutting as the three best options
• There will be 2 guys at least with long wrinkled hair tied into a pony tail and he is looking 15 degrees west
• There will be one guy with goggles on
• There will be a couple of guys whose photograph is featured only because he is the only one who would climb that tree and tie the banner
• Most of these last row guys look like pickpockets and chain-snatchers whose photographs are put up at Imlibun bus station and Secunderabad Railway Station

All said, why am I pissed?

• These banners block traffic visibility at some junctions
• These photographs spoil my mood, especially the last row guys. I wish to see Rachel Hurd Wood, Imogen Poots and January Jones, Not these ugly faces. 
• I would say it is a social responsibility not to get photographed  and subject others to barfing, indigestion and fleeting mental depression

In the larger interest of the happiness of the society, I think there should be a ban on such banners.

- Deepak Karamungikar