If words
were to encapsulate the ethos and characteristics of a city with equal measure,
then, for Chennai, the Tamil word kazhagam
would make the cut, easily by a mile.
No other word is as omnipresent in this burgeoning southern metropolis. Whether you make an effort to ignore it or not, whether you loath it or invite it, the kazhagam is out there, staring at you from everywhere.
How does one check the veracity of the above statements? Head in to the city with an observant eye, and with the intention of counting the instances of the rendezvous with that ubiquitous word. Board any MTC (Metropolitan Transport Corporation) bus, but before doing so, take note of the letterings on its sides; board a share auto – that can be accurately described as a cross between a utility truck and an autorickshaw, which performs the tasks of both – proceed to some non-decrepit place, but while paying the fare after haggling with the driver, read the sticker of the union to which it belongs. The city’s railway network too falls under the ambit of the kazhagam, if the encyclopedia of posters on strikes and elections that greet you there are any indicator.
The regional media is no exception, either. Switch on the television or browse the newspapers and you would realise how vital this innocuous word is to the political sphere of the state. In fact, no politics is possible in Tamil Nadu without it. From the DK founded in the pre-Indepedence era to the not so recent DMDK, or the principal Dravidian parties – the polemic DMK and AIADMK – every political outfit worth its salt is a something only if it has been suffixed with K (Is it any coincidence that the fortunes of the national political parties, the BJP and Congress, here are as extinct as the dodo?).
It may not sound outrageous to suggest that kazhagam is an element whose abundance in the city is not exceeded even by the public cut-outs and hoardings of superstar Rajinikanth, the dictatorial Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, the DMK’s ‘talk-ever achieve-never’ TESO conferences or the ever-controversial Swami Nityananda.
But pray what does this word mean, enabling its usage all over?
Kazhagam stands for group/ outfit/ unit, and its synonyms, of course. I am well served by the new-age source of non-authentic information that is readily referenced, Wikipedia, for an attestation. This means that the many Ks of TN, DMK, AIADMK and their like, are kazhagams for development (never mind the paradox, though).
Its usage construed as an overpowering fixation by some and a puzzling fetish by a few others, what with the Tamil language endowed with many synonyms, an encounter with the kazhagam is inevitable while traversing the landscape of Chennai.
