Chennai: ‘Poda Poramboke’ is probably the last name you can think of for an event surrounding a social cause. Hosted by Justice Rocks at Spaces with the tagline ‘unsponsored by TNPCA, CMDA and Chennai corporation’, Poda Poramboke used music and humour to good effect to throw light on the issue of wastelands, highlighting in particular how ‘wastelands’ were anything but ‘waste’ lands.
Poda Poramboke saw Carnatic powerhouse T.M. Krishna share the stage with Sofia Ashraf, the Tamil rapper among other bands including Korangan. The event centered around the release of a Carnatic single ‘Chennai Poramboke Paadal’ on YouTube, focused on the issue of wastelands and in particular Ennore. A first of many sorts, Krishna breathes life into the lyrics penned by Kaber Vasuki in Chennai ‘Tamil’.
Krishna raised the metaphorical roof in an open space with his live rendition of the Carnatic single that broke barriers of all sorts. He stressed on the importance of treating it as any other Carnatic song, rather than as a humourous one–off. “Poramboke song is right up there with any Thyagaraja keethana I’ve sung. No higher. No lower”. Keeping with Carnatic tradition, he started off with the alapana followed by the Poramboke paadal with improvisations of his own highlighting the inaction of the government, the apathy of the people and corporate greed. The crowd literally stood on its feet and gave the team rousing ovation.
“Poda Poramboke has today become a common slur in tamil, often to tag someone ‘useless’. Poramboke is actually the land of the people. It doesn’t belong to anyone. No one has the right to abuse it for their private gain. And it’s anything but useless. Not only is slurry ash being dumped into Ennore with the government conveniently looking the other way, corporates are cornering and staking claim to poramboke land killing the livelihoods of many in the vicinity,” Krishna said echoing issues he raises in the single that was shot in Poramboke land.
The fishing community in particular has been severely hit in Ennore with industrial waste and effluents contaminating the creek and killing thousands of varieties of fish and seafood. The value of the catch in the area has also plummeted with slurry ash affecting the remaining fish.
CMDA has earmarked more than 2000 acres of wetlands for setting up hazardous chemical industries. The video calls for a mass civilian participation, requesting National Green Tribunal to save the rich creek, famous for its saltpans and mangroves. As on Sunday the number of signatures crossed 250.
“At a time when Tamil culture is the subject of national debate, it is worth remembering that protecting the Poramboke commons is also a revered Tamil tradition,” said Nityanand Jayaraman, an environmentalist who collaborated on the project.
At a time when people are being branded anti-national for questioning the government and assaulted for not standing up for the National Anthem, Spaces offered a bubble of free thought and discussion on various issues concerning the society.
Mallipoo and the Alwas, featuring Sofia Ashraf who also hosted the event, Chennai indie-band Korangan, stand-up comedian Vijay and a few other delightful debut performances more than entertained, and gave the crowd much food for thought. The song can be viewed at https://youtu.be/82jFyeV5AHM or by visiting storyofennore.wordpress.com.
