The Borewell Song - an unfinished script, to allow you to experiment

 The Borewell song

[A drilling sound is heard. A few children come on to stage making a drill kind of a sound.

All together:
We are all grown up now, we’re on our own
We can now afford a home of our own
[We’re on our own]

And yes, we got that home loan
And will toil away to build it on our own
And will show the world that we can own
A great, lovely, loved home
[We’re on our own]
A great garden, that’s family grown
All the seeds, watered and sown
We’re on our own, we’re on our own, we’re on our own …

And then some of us will build upon
One on top of another’s, living, kitchen, bedroom and barn
We’ll stack ourselves till we get many floors on…
We’re on our own, we’re on our own, we’re on our own …

Passerby:
Hey there, I’m Mr. Passerby!
I see that you are all busy with something…don’t want to interrupt…
Nice song by the way!

But tell me, what’s that drill for?

All of them together:
Oh this? Don’t you know? It’s the water driller! It sucks water out efficiently from deep below the earth and provides us all unlimited supply of water.

Passerby:
Oh! But where is this coming from?

All [stumped]:
Where? We don’t know where! I guess from somewhere down there!
[Start muttering and questioning amongst themselves “do you know where, do you, I don’t, I thought”…]

Passerby goes closer:
Beg your pardon, but I’m sure we are well past the days of “magic-believe”!

Surely, you must know how this works!

Someone from ALL says:

Well, my uncle piped up water this way, last week!

And all my friends all over do just this, you see!
Its essential get this kind of water warranty!
The corporation water supply is unreliable, truly,
So we must be safe and have unlimited water, so this gives us security!

As long as its working, its great! Who needs to know how!

[All laugh as someone’s comments in a Passerby mocking manner]

Onlooker comes in stands on the periphery and just keeps looking but not saying much

Passerby: Hey Onlooker! ALL are doing some drilling, and they say that they don’t know where it will lead! They say that this will give them unlimited supply of water. They claim that there is just a big nice “un-emptiable” water pot down there!

What’s going on Onlooker? Can you tell?

Onlooker: Oh well, they’re sucking away, those achievers with an education. They are taking out all the water below. Precious water that seeps in and is secretly stored by the earth…

All simultaneously taking off water from both above, and below…lakes, rivers, ponds and groundwater too

ALL:
Hey, hey, hey! Who are you accusing?
And what’s all the unnecessary accusation for huh? This land is ours, and so is everything that can be sliced off and taken along with it!

Onlooker: I’m just peeking, and now I’m leaving!!

Passerby: But, wait! Listen…Oh dear!

(Point to stop and get responses.This can be handled as a forum theatre piece too, if one knows how to craft such performances. Google on Augusto Boal’s forum theatre methods for more info)

From this point onwards, the children can be asked as to how to resolve this.

• ALL want to build homes and stay happy and lead a good life, nothing wrong with that!
• But what else are they doing or not doing right?
• How can this situation be helped?
• How does one get water from below?
• Where is it coming from?

The children can read up and do research…then present what they learnt through other similar characters.Be encouraged to give names to people from ALL and give them lines…and also create other characters like:Mr Bore-d-swell or Miss Bore-it-well- Children of the great Doc Croc Borewell
(The children or the facilitator can do some research on the kinds of wells and the evolution of the borewell. How is it different from dug wells, and why is it worse in its depleting the water table)

Bystander

Concerned Cityzen

City Corporation Supply tube (This can be personified as a character and the tube can come and talk about how its coming from far away, and the way water treatment is happening along the way, and how it cannot handle too much pressure and volume and numbers…)

Water table (Again, punning on table, some funny analogies can be drawn to other more solid “tables”, like study table, dining table and math tables! The shrinking, or retreating water table can move around and shrink and grow post rain water harvesting content that can come in)