January 31, 2023
A Quest for Rubbish
Our quest commenced on Monday, the fourth week of January 2023 AD as my teammates and I marched through the door of Hasiru Dala’s J.P. Nagar office. We sought out and convened with our supervisor, Akbar, and he explained the mission of Hasiru Dala, their aim to design waste collection centers and waste pickers’ houses using improved methodologies, and most intriguingly, the concept of “Placemaking”. He explained the term at great length, and we thus recognized it as a most abstract concept. Accordingly and without further ado, Akbar sent us on our first quest: to determine the essence of placemaking and to summon a presentation about the concept for him in no later than a half-fortnight’s time.
Each day, we foraged tirelessly across the internet for definitions and historical evidence of the success of placemaking. From these fragments of thought, we fashioned a definition more powerful than the sum of its parts that could quench the most dire thirsts for understanding and withstand the most turbulent storms of confusion. A presentation gradually took shape, and likewise our confidence assumed greater vitality. However, our vitality was not self-sustained. We journeyed day-in and day-out to the Third-wave coffee stand for solace and comfort and to sustain our efforts with the finest nectars of the land. In our darker days, doubts crept upon us about the intentions Akbar had for our team upon the completion of this quest and how its completion would serve toward our larger directives as the knights of the GCIL. With these doubts hovering, we consulted the wisdom of Bianca of Hasiru Dala. She bequeathed to us even greater knowledge of the dealings of Hasiru Dala and advised us to schedule visits to the informal housing regions and Dry Waste Collection Centers of the land. Here, we would learn of the workers’ daily undertakings.
Soon enough, the sun set upon a week of search and discovery. While we had not yet completed the summoning of a presentation for Akbar, we decided it was time to return to him with our findings. To our surprise, we discovered this quest for the understanding of placemaking was merely the first of more quests, possibly many. He explained to us that his true intention was for us to query the waste workers of Bangalore on their potential benefit from Placemaking. We scribbled our quills furiously upon fatigued parchments as we galloped desperately to keep pace with Akbar’s expositions on the various potential incorporations of public health, infrastructure, psychology, and other forms of knowledge to the art of placemaking and our role in expanding the knowledge of how placemaking could be applied to waste workers’ homes and workspaces, and how we could apply these multiple areas of knowledge to this work and . . .
We left the meeting in a daze, and it soon became apparent that we had an even greater quest ahead of us. We had much to do in the way of preparation, and we continued to hone our previously prepared interview questions, retooling and sharpening them for their true purpose, to find out the pains and aspirations of waste workers. Perhaps, we would be able to use these findings not only to investigate the potential utility of the placemaking approach and thus to complete our quest for Hasiru Dala, but to complete our quest to advance social entrepreneurship as well. However, for this outcome, we would have to remain rather patient for data, even in the face of impending deadlines.
At any rate, the week had left me devoid of any remaining vitality, so I assumed a state of hibernation in my hostel dwelling. I had initially mused to myself of venturing on my own personal quest to the mysterious Skandagiri Hills on the northern outskirts. However, I ultimately decided slumbering in bed in a fetal position would revitalize my energies most swiftly, so this mountain quest would save for another time. And what a glorious slumber it was!
