In Delhi’s GK II market, we found this: the most amazing use of literary rhythm and internal rhyme I’ve ever seen in corporate branding. We have no idea what it means, but we love saying it out loud.
Buy our book!
If you like this blog, you'll love our book! Learn more about Delirious Delhi or buy Delirious Delhi on Amazon.Our greatest hits
Just joiningOur Delhi Struggle
? You should catch up with our favorite posts, starting with our Bollywood poster.
Our other favorites:
•The Power of "Bhaiya"
•Jugaad
•Friends
•Nehru Place
•Learning new English
•"Do one thing"
•The five-rupee showdown
•Taco Bell in India
•Disappointment of the goat
Follow our tweets!
Our RSS feeds
Our Delhi Struggle 
Sabka bazaar = Everyone’s market
Saman hazaar… = A thousand goods, with repeated savings
Anyone else notice an increased tendency to write Hindi in the Roman script these days? (over, say, the last decade or so). Even the US Census bureau has gotten in on the Hindi in Roman act with a web ad aimed at ethnic Indians in the US.
Jag beat me to it, but allow me to introduce you to Google Translate. Just type in the Hindi like it sounds, and it will transliterate and tell you what it means. 🙂
Well the “baar baar” (again and again) thing can be traced to a old hit TV advertisement for detergent which became more than a ad slogan. And that kind of rhyming became a stock feature in many ads which rely just on jingle (not narrative or story).
It was used in this movie Chashme Buddoor (Touch Wood) when the saleswoman gives a demo to the protagonist:
(I would recommend to watch this movie with subtitles if you get hold it)
What you might also find interesting is how there are plenty of stores that advertise savings on groceries but just sell at MRP anyway, like Pick-And-Save.
You guys don’t get it..
Don’t do a literal translation.
A better translation would be
“Lots of stuff, lots of savings”
@Abhimanyu: It’s an old trick, they inflate the prices and then claim the MRP as a ‘discount’!
It is a very catchy slogan and it even rhymes with the name of the store.
Oh sweet Rex, I’ma let you finish but the transliteration was better when Jag did it. The closest approximation would be “million things, repeated savings” .
Quark, I loved that movie . It is so funny and a classic. I even remember that soap – Chamko (meaning Shine).
This sounds a lot like a govt slogan. They have Apna Bazaar in Mumbai (by govt) which means ‘our market’, and if its Bazaar, it has to have Baar Baar in the slogan!
@ Rex. Well the literal translate works here. Sounds nice enough too 😉
@ thequark. Love Chashme Buddoor, though I dont think that the origin of the baar baar phrase.
who cares for the meaning in India anyways .. it’s always the rythm 😉
Wow, yes, may be the rhythm has a meaning to it which the text doesn’t has 😀