As part of my drain tour from Majestic to Bellandur, for the project ‘As the Drain Goes’, I walked the stretch of the K100 drain, photographing garbage both in and around the drains. Viewing the sites of garbage around, I penned this poem, “Troubled Waters”.
‘As the drain goes’, is a joint project by Pinky Chandran, Nalini Shekar, and Citizen Matters, and is supported by the Bengaluru Sustainability Forum (BSF) Small Grants Programme
Troubled Waters
The water in our drains are troubled,
Distressed and distraught,
For, the drains are a conduit that carries the city’s discards
The water in our drains are troubled,
Engulfed with garbage making for a deadly whirlpool
We flinch, at the sight
Of the drain’s living corpse
Yet, we carry on making the wastescape
The trash in the waters, sparkle,
There is a beautiful synchronised harmony
In all the things that make their way inside
Single use plastics, furniture, mattress, clothes
Construction debri and carcasses
There is an electric charge around the discards
Troubling the water in the drain,
Lying defeated and deflated
But wait there’s more,
The garbage around the drains,
Makes for another enigmatic sight,
Representing the rejected
It calls out on the cold treatment of being excluded
From the cycle of life
Who will mourn the loss of
Wasted lands, and wasted water bodies
Withering, rotting, mutating, festering, changing
Both the garbage in the drain and around it
Wait for a salvation,
But Alas
Only to be buried or burnt…
– Pinky Chandran, May 2022

















