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).