There are a surprisingly large number of people in our city with a desperate need to wish themselves a happy birthday in public. When they aren’t engaged in plastering walls, trees and junctions with these congratulatory messages, they wish other people they know in a similar fashion. What the rest of us have to deal with, in the process, is a never-ending barrage of ugly, illegal hoardings making Mumbai look obnoxious throughout the year.

Take this recent example of posters wishing our Mayor — the first citizen, to put things into perspective — on his birthday. We fail to see why someone has to be wished with a massive poster, when a personal phone call (or SMS for the particularly lazy) ought to serve the purpose just as well.