
This poem Contested Narrartives was written in September 2022, after the recent floods in Bengaluru. I am grateful to the conversations with Malini Ranganath, Bhargavi Rao, Leo Saldhana , Archana, Hasiru dala and Raghavendra, Action Aid. This article is part of a series ‘As the drain goes’, a joint project by Pinky Chandran, Nalini Shekar, and Citizen Matters, and is supported by the Bengaluru Sustainability Forum (BSF).
Contested Narratives
The city is full of contradictions
Fractured, complicated
Fragmented, fissured
But at it’s competitive best
Aspirations, of a world class city
With little care,
Of residual experiences
And contested terrains
It’s the possibilities
Of geographical imaginations
That leave no footprints
Wreckage be damned
The cracks, can be ignored
And differences brushed aside
It’s the challenge of overcoming
And circumventing limitations
That drive a world class city
The shiny facade,
Manicured lawns,
And the brutal beauty
Of visual aesthetics
That bring in the brand value
The concrete and glass facades
Symbolic of prestige, power and privilege
Oh, what about the slums
An eyesore they say
Worry not,
For the bulldozers will find a way
To get rid of the pitiful environs
Oh, what about the lakes
That makes the activist see red,
Worry not,
For we have perfected the art of
Forgotten maps,
And skillful orchestrations
Oh, but what about the trees
Worry not,
For we know how to transport them
To the outskirts in the name of tree transplantation
We need roads and elevated corridors
To announce that we have arrived
Look at the city lights
A burning imagery
Of all those shiny and new
Mortality be crucified
It’s the aspirations of a world class city
That makes everything count
Stop perpetuating fear
Of doomsday predictions
And all the negative emotions
Look at the multicoloured luminescence
Of street lights and the shops,
Fireflies, don’t do justice
For a city that delights
In material pursuits
The grass and fields
Are for farm houses
The clubhouse and swimming pools
Are testimony for our present endeavours
Bask in the wildest imaginations
Of the new city
Unknown to the drab and dirty
Leave the green pastures by
Let’s import trees that can adorn the city,
Water retention be damned
Blurring the yesterday in today
Challenging the everyday
Filtering the hue,
With glass tinted lens
For a view of the world class city.
– Pinky Chandran