Before morning light fully breaks, fish vendors from more than nine villages spread their catch along Loop Road at Marina Beach, close to where the boats come in. Buyers already know this stretch and the trade has grown here over generations. The Greater Chennai Corporation now proposes to expand 108 stalls inside the market from 30 sq ft to 50 sq ft. It may look like development from the outside. For some vendors, it means leaving behind a place where customers already come to them. When the market opened in 2024, many continued to sell outside. Vendors have since complained of dim lighting, cramped storage, and poor ventilation. In July 2026, TNIE reported that 160 vendors had submitted willingness forms, but only 122 matched the fisheries department’s beneficiary list.
The Loop Road dispute points to a larger question about the commons. A space may belong to everyone in principle, while decisions about it remain in the hands of a few. For the vendors, the road is a workplace shaped by customers and trade. Porombokkiyal 2026 begins with this question of who gets to use a shared space, and whose knowledge of it matters.
Reclaiming a word
‘Poromboke’ is a word that once referred to common land and shared-use spaces. Over time, it acquired a derogatory meaning in colloquial Tamil, becoming a word for something or someone considered worthless. Monali Bala, musician and music educator, explains that the festival is part of an effort to reclaim the original meaning of the word and use it to examine how communities share and care for spaces and resources.
Porombokkiyal grew out of the wider Chennai Kalai Theru Vizha, which began as Urur-Olcott Kuppam Vizha in January 2015. Monali says, “Initially, when we started this festival, our first thought was that a lot of art forms are not on par with others. That is largely due to caste hegemony.” The festival moved between Urur and Olcott Kuppam, West Mambalam, Mylapore, and Ennore before becoming Chennai Kalai Theru Vizha. Its work also expanded into Kalaikoodam, which provides free arts education to children, and Porombokkiyal, which focuses on knowledge systems that exist outside universities.
Porombokkiyal seeks expertise from the commoners. Archanaa Seker, an activist and a volunteer with the festival, says, “Where there is experience, there is a skill set, knowledge, and science. Much of this is learnt by doing and passed from one person to another, and also learnt by watching your family and other people in those particular crafts or livelihoods.”
Monali adds, “If you look at forest dwellers, fishermen, those who work with rocks, with plants, it is not as though they have some PhD on a subject. But that does not mean they don’t have knowledge. They have wisdom which they pass on.” The event attempts to question why this knowledge is so often denied the status of expertise.
Sharing is caring
The first three editions of Porombokkiyal examined commons through landscapes such as forests, mountains, villages, the sea and backwaters. This year, the festival turns towards urban spaces.
The programme begins with roads and the many people and living beings who use them. Archanaa says the shift to urban commons also raises a different question. “There is the question of how the commons have been, for so long, historically and traditionally associated with the landscapes that haven’t been created, that have always existed. But in the urban, what does it mean to then create commons?”
That question moves beyond roads and physical spaces. One session examines music, intellectual property, and the internet. The event will also examine community spaces and the work required to keep them open and shared. Its final session will take the discussion into an open house, asking audiences to consider their own relationship with shared resources and the unseen labour that sustains city life.
The idea of a commons can easily become a conversation about rights. Porombokkiyal wants to bring responsibility into that conversation too.
Monali asks, “Is it okay to throw the garbage on the beach because it is a commons? Is it not the responsibility of each and every person to maintain it? Does it have to be only the corporation sweeper who has to come and clean it?”
Archanaa says the larger aim is to encourage more people to create accessible spaces and share knowledge. She concludes, “Maybe we should just try and encourage more people to find ways to be funded responsibly and do free events.”
Porombokkiyal 2026
Presented by Chennai Kalai Theru Vizha
Date: September 19
Time: 10 am onwards
Venue: TRACE The SPACE, 54, Dr Radha Krishnan Salai, Jagadambal Colony, Sripuram, Othavadi, Mylapore
The event is free and open to all. The venue has a wheelchair-friendly ramp leading to the lift and an accessible stage. Live transcription will be provided between Tamil and English, along with an Indian Sign Language interpreter.