A low-floor bus brings the pavement closer to the passenger. For someone using a wheelchair, it can mean a ramp instead of a step. For an older passenger, a child, or someone carrying a bag, it can mean an easier climb. At the closing session of Porombokkiyal 2026, titled ‘Naa Porombokku! Nee Porombokka?’, Archanaa Seker, activist and volunteer with Chennai Kalai Theru Vizha, used the bus to make a larger point about how a city can be designed.
“We think of design as accommodation. But it is in fact easy for everyone to get into that bus,” Archanaa said, asking the audience to look beyond the idea of accessibility as something provided for a particular group. “Design universally. Consume responsibly. Include everybody.”
That idea ran through her perception of porombokku. She described commons as spaces that are created, cared for, and claimed by communities, but also as spaces shaped by power. Her checklist moved between the physical and the virtual, from roads and neighbourhoods to WhatsApp groups and the less visible networks through which people look after one another. “We had talked about road justice. Salai porombokku being the largest porombokku,” she said. The road, in this understanding, is more than a route for vehicles. Different people use it for different purposes, and making room for one use can often mean negotiating with another.
The power of showing up
The same principle, Archanaa argued, is visible online. She spoke about Koffee and Kalavaram, a women-identifying community of around 200 people whose conversations move from tailoring to weight-loss journeys and the ordinary details of everyday life. She also pointed to Chennai Rain Relief, a group that comes together during disasters to coordinate blood donations and civic assistance. “These WhatsApp communities are building communities. They will be there for each other, maybe asking for serious things like recommending a therapist or getting a good morning message,” she said, describing the smaller networks that allow people to respond when formal systems cannot immediately reach everyone. She also highlighted Whisper Networks in the city where information travels through relationships of trust. “We might inform people to be vary of someone or any bad experiences faced by us, so that we can look out for each other,” she added.
For all the volunteers of Chennai Kalai Theru Vizha, these voluntary acts of looking out for one another are part of what makes a commons (porombokku). Archanaa and her team made a checklist for porombokku which included collective care, shared use and the idea that there can be no commons without a community. She also asked the audience to consider what it means to claim a city while remaining responsible for the people who share it.“Equalise spaces, neutralise power, and inconvenience ourselves. Also, engage with the other,” she said, turning the idea of inclusion into something that demands participation rather than passive access. By the end of the session, the question had moved from infrastructure to belonging. Archanaa asked whether individual acts of kindness count, before connecting care with the desire to belong. She shared, “We fight because we care. We fight because we want to belong. The city is ours. Fight to belong. Fight with care.”
Across the day at Trace The Space, Porombokkiyal 2026 approached the commons from several directions. The first session examined the many lives of a road through the experiences of a fish vendor, a disability rights activist, a community leader, and a nature educator. The second looked at community spaces in Vyasarpadi through Vyasai Thozhargal, and the work of sustaining them. The third moved into music, intellectual property and the internet. The final open house brought those questions back to the audience, asking what it means to live in a city shaped by shared spaces, shared resources, and the small acts through which people continue to care for one another.