On a typical Bengaluru morning, you might pass a broken sofa slumped under a flyover, a mattress leaning against a tree, or an armchair abandoned near a garbage point. These bulky items have quietly become part of the city’s landscape — eyesores no one knows how to deal with.

So when walking-tour curator Arun Pai sits on one such dumped sofa and says, “Namaskara, Bengaluru has a sofa problem — and I’m sitting on it,” it’s hard not to nod in agreement.

Most residents don’t realise that sofas and mattresses cannot be sent “as is” to waste-processing facilities. They’re too big for compactors, too mixed in materials (metal, wood, foam, fabric), and too heavy for local sanitation workers to load.

So they pile up on footpaths for days, even weeks, blocking walkways and damaging the city’s image.

Determined to demonstrate how easily this problem can be resolved, Arun........

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