While Indians are all praise for the new vice president-elect of the United States, her aunt spoke on Sunday about how Kamala Harris grew up as a “good girl” and how she always achieved what she wanted.
“We have always watched her (Kamala Harris) grow up as a good girl. She was very good at everything she did and has accomplished what she wanted to do, ”said Dr. Sarala Gopalan, Harris’s maternal aunt based in Chennai, according to the ANI news agency.
Click here for full coverage of the US elections.
The historic election of Harris as the first female vice president of the United States has marked the festivities in the Tamil village of the aunt of the elected Indian-Americans. Residents of Thulasendrapuram village in Tiruvarur district set off firecrackers, distributed sweets and drew colorful rangolis.
Harris also highlighted her Tamil roots during her acceptance speech as a Democratic candidate for the vice president position. “She raised us (Harris and her sister, Maya) to be strong and proud black women. And she raised us to know and be proud of our Indian heritage. She taught us to put family first, the family you are born into and the family you choose, ”she said referring to her mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris. Explaining what family means to her, she added: “Family is my uncles, my aunts and my chittis.”
The use of the word ‘chittis’, which in Tamil means aunts, was acclaimed by the Indian-American community. MR Rangaswami, a California IT entrepreneur turned philanthropist, said he was “beating” himself with excitement when he heard Kamala Harris utter the word “chittis” in her speech. “Indians and Tamils would have felt a connection to Kamala during her acceptance speech when she addressed her aunts as ‘chittis,'” he said.
Born to an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, Harris is the first woman, the first Native American, the first black, the first South Asian, and the first Asian elected as vice president.
.
