Poromboke song’s video cover created by youngster goes viral

Recently, Hari Haran, a mechanical engineer graduate, created a video cover for indie musician Kaber Vasuki’s Poromboke song. Within a few minutes of its release on social media, the video went viral and was shared by many netizens. “I have listened to this song earlier — I am a big fan of Kaber’s music and lyrics. This song had been stuck up in my mind for a long time. When I heard the news of floods in Chennai, I thought this song could be used to make a video cover so people would become aware of the topic. I wanted people to realise that anthropocentric development would lead us to catastrophe. Any kind of so-called ‘development’ should be in coherence with the laws of nature,” says Hari Haran.

Poromboke is an old Tamil word meaning shared-use community resources like water bodies, seashores and grazing land. But today, it has become a bad word that’s used to describe worthless people or places. “Poromboke is an area which was designated for shared usage. We have seen encroachments of these lands happening in the name of development due to population explosion. People and the government should value the significance of these lands. These poromboke areas are the buffers to prevent flooding. If the scarce lands which are left now are being encroached in the future, then we would be losing lives in floods and other disasters. This is because nature has to maintain its balance. We can’t be defying the laws of nature for a long time. The time for the gradual destruction of humanity would begin. The immediate effect would be felt on the socio-economically backward section of the society and it would gradually move up the ladder and affect all in the future,” he adds.