Exnora: Playing populism to the morality of Chennai middle class

Exnora was once a people's organization, both conceptually and functionally. It could have continued to be the neighbourhood community organization it was till the 'International' came into picture and it started living the Chennai middle class dream of having a 'global storm' out of every small noisy sneeze that it makes.

It is today highly populist and is the biggest balm for the mindless consumerism of the chennai middle class. It makes them feel extremely comfortable in their lifestyle, never challenges them and instead gives populist, visible, gestures, a pitch more sophisticated than the Kollywood type.

Here is one more from the ever imaginative brain of Exnora - 88888, an idea it hopes which will attract the chennai minds to the perils of global warming, how?

Simple gesture - switch off electricity for 8 minutes at 8 p.m. on 888, why not 8 a.m.? far less to switch off then, more convenient; what if i choose to write 08/08/2008 instead? what do we do after 8 minutes, when it becomes 8:08?? do we switch on again and wait for 090909? so that we repeat it for a 9 minutes to express our solidarity with this cause? What happens when we cross the hour barrier of 12? will we do a 24-hour time cycle from 13 to 24 again? what do we do after 24?

AND worse, they choose to do awareness of this entire thing with a bunch of visiting 'foreign' students on bullock carts carrying cut-outs of 8! and why? according to the news paper report (below), to signify 'transport simplicity'!!! all these people travelled from Sweden to India by bullock carts?

There was some confusion on what this was supposed to symbolise, with organisers saying it was meant to promote the concept of transport simplicity — reduce greenhouse gas emissions by walking, cycling or using public transport. Several speakers, however, used the slow procession as a cautionary tale — if the world runs out of fossil fuels, we could end up returning to the bullock cart.

Global warming happens because of developed nations have not been challenged in their lifestyle, including jet-hopping, globe trotting for promoting good causes. The Chennai middle class is happy that its children are part of that country and life the life style of the developed nation, they are trying their best to realize such a life style in Chennai too. They are happy with rising real estate values, the ascendas work environment and reliance retail for shopping, they are happy with aircon buses and metro to travel. They are certainly happy with their invited holidays in the US of A, the biggest polluter of the world.

The chennai middle class has benefited from the globalized world, Exnora's populism caters to the ego of the chennai-ite without challenging their lifestyle. Truly Exnora has transcended from being a humble people's organization that once was chennai's pride, to that of a globally visible, locally irrelevant organization that caters to the middle class ego, chennai middle class and exnora are inseparable.