Kamala Harris, the first Indian-American woman to be chosen as a running mate for the post of Vice President in the US elections, recently opened up about her love for idlis, long walks with her grandfather in Chennai and her Indian background.
Speaking at an event, South Asians of Biden, she said:
When my mother Shyamala stepped off a plane in California as a 19-year-old, she didn’t have much in way of belongings but she carried with her lessons from home, including ones she’d learned from her parents.
Kamala added that her mother, a reseracher and activist, would take her two daughters to India, to get them acquainted with their roots.
Growing up, my mother would take my sister Maya and me back to what was then called Madras because she wanted us to understand where she had come from and where we had ancestry.
Also, she said, that her mother wanted them to develop the taste for idlis.
And, of course, she always wanted to instil in us, a love of good idli.
In a nostalgic address, she further noted how she used to take long walks with her grandfather, civil servant PV Gopalan, who used to tell her about India’s freedom struggle.
In Madras, I would go on long walks with my grandfather, who at that point was retired, and we take morning walks where I pulled his hand and he would tell me about the heroes who are responsible for the birth of the world’s biggest democracy, and he would explain that ‘tt’s on us to pick up where they left off’. Those lessons are a big reason why I am where I am today.