Mala Adiga’s appointment as policy director for Jill Biden, the first lady to US President-elect Joe Biden, has brought joy to the Kakkunje village in the Kundapur taluk of the Udupi district.
It belongs to the family of K Suryanarayana Adiga, founder of the private sector Karnataka Bank Limited, formerly undivided from Dakshina Kannada districts, and Aravind Adiga, which won the Man Booker award in 2008.
Mala Adiga is the niece of Nirmala Upadhya, who is her father’s older sister.
He told reporters in Kundapur that Mala is a loving and charming girl.
She treasures relationships and has her roots firmly in India, Nirmala said.
Nirmala, 87, said Mala had called her on Saturday to share the news that she was named a senior White House staff member when Biden takes office as president of the United States in January.
She had congratulated on the new responsibility.
Malaysian father Dr. Ramesh Adiga (84) is the second of three siblings.
He had gone to the United States when he was 25 years old to hone his skills as a vascular surgeon.
Mala’s mother, Jaya Adiga, had studied medicine at Vellore.
Nirmala recalled meeting Mala at a family gathering in Bangalore in 2019.
Later, Nirmala had traveled with her daughter Sujatha Nakkatthaya and her family to Bangalore in November 2019.
Mala had come to Bengaluru with her husband Charles and daughter Asha to attend the event with her parents.
They had come to Kundapur seven years ago and had fallen in love with the beaches there.
She had offered puja at the Kakkunje temple and they visited her ancestral home in Babbarianakatte.
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