Dear Readers,
This is my very first attempt at writing and illustrating a book. It took me almost a year to do my research and finally I arrived at this comic book. However, every story always has an origin story and this is how it all began.
It was just another lazy Sunday morning when I decided to clean up my wardrobe. My room and wardrobe had recently been through a rough patch, and I had no time to clean them. So, I decided to spend my time cleaning and thereby decluttering myself too.
After hours of strenuous, back-breaking clean-up, I was shocked to see the amount of waste I had hoarded. I was even more surprised to find a bunch of useless earphones and broken charger cords, and I didn’t know what to do with them. Do I throw them in the dry waste or the wet waste? Back then, these were the only two categories I knew. I tried to search on Google, and when I did, it changed my entire perspective on waste. I wanted to know more about what happens to these items.
I knew that paper could be recycled, and some plastics and metals could be reused too. But what happens to e-waste (electronic waste)? As it contains a variety of plastics and metals! What happens when I throw my earphones in the garbage bin?
IM MATERIAL- The Rise of Electrombies is a journey from being immaterial to realizing that I am material. “I” here is a metaphor for you, me, and all the waste materials that surround us. This book reflects on my journey of understanding e-waste as a growing problem and our throwaway attitude towards waste.
I am attempting here, to narrate this story with a twist and a little bit of drama. This story, in the literal sense, is fictional, but the problem it states is very real and something that we all have to think about.