Kamala’s mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was originally from Chennai in Tamil Nadu.
After a four-day marathon ballot count, the United States of America elected Democratic nominees Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House, making Kamala the first black and Asian-American vice presidential candidate in the United States history. She is also the third woman in a major party for the vice presidency and the fourth woman in history.
It was in August 2020 that Kamala Devi Harris, a California senator, was named a vice presidential candidate to run alongside former Vice President Joe Biden.
Born to Donald Harris, an immigrant from Jamaica and former Professor of Economics at Stanford University, and Shyamala Gopalan, a cancer researcher and civil rights activist who moved to the United States from Chennai, Kamala initially lived in Berkeley, California. with his sister Maya. before moving to Canada after her parents divorced when Kamala was seven.
Later, Kamala attended Howard University, a historically black university in Washington DC. Shyamala passed away in 2009 due to colon cancer.
On many occasions, Harris has reiterated the powerful influence her mother had on her and her sister’s lives. She has said that after her parents’ divorce, she was raised primarily by her mother. “My mother understood very well that she was raising two black daughters,” she wrote in her autobiography The Truths We Hold. “She knew that her adopted land would see Maya and me as black girls and she was determined to make sure we became proud and confident black women.”
Kamala Harris had also expressed her love for South Indian food, including idli and sambar. In 2019, a video of her and comedian Mindy Kaling making masala dosas went viral as Kamala was running for the presidential nomination. In an interview, Kamala had also said that she and her sister used to visit India once every few years and had vivid memories of the time she spent with her grandfather, PV Gopalan, walking on the beach.
“One of the most influential people in my life, besides my mother, was my grandfather PV Gopalan, who actually held a position in India that was like the position of secretary of state in this country. My grandfather was one of the original Independence fighters in India, and some of my best childhood memories were walking along the beach with him after he came back and lived in Besant Nagar, ”she said in an interview.
Recently, Thulasenthirapuram, a small village near Mannarkudi in the Thiruvarur district of Tamil Nadu, held special poojas for Kamala’s victory in the US elections. Kamala’s maternal family hails from the village, and immediately after her nomination for the vice presidency was announced, several posters appeared in the area wishing her luck and expressing pride in her accomplishments.
Biden and Harris garnered 273 electoral votes after a key win in Pennsylvania that threw them over the finish line.
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