Kamala Harris and an Indian Village
NY Times reports on how Kamala Harris’ ancestral village celebrated her victory today. November 8, 2020.
From the moment the sun came up in Thulasendrapuram, a little village in southern India, people started stringing firecrackers across the road. They poured into the temple. They took colored powder and wrote exuberant messages in big, happy letters in front of their homes, like this one:
“Congratulations Kamala Harris, pride of our village.”
If there was one place in India that relished the triumph of Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Ms. Harris, his running mate, in America’s presidential election, it was Thulasendrapuram, the hamlet where Ms. Harris’s Indian grandfather was born more than 100 years ago. Her name is scrawled on a board by the temple. People there love her and identify strongly with her.
For four days, Thulasendrapuram’s 500 or so residents had been waiting anxiously. They’d been praying at the temple, draping Hindu idols with rose petals and strings of sweet-smelling jasmine, and alternately searching for good omens and checking their cellphones for the latest updates.
On Sunday, a wave of joy burst.
“Kamala has made this village very proud,” said Renganathan, a farmer, who rushed to the village’s main temple. “She’s a great lady and an inspiration. She belongs to this soil.”
Read more : https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/08/world/asia/kamala-harris-india.html
