As the United States begins to vote to elect its new President and Vice President, people at Thulasenthirapuram village in South Tamil Nadu are busy offering prayers. Otherwise a non-descript village, Thulasenthirapuram, the ancestral village of Kamala Harris, the Vice-Presidential running mate of Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden, has been in the news for the past one month. On Tuesday, the residents of the village offered special prayers for her grand victory at the Dharmasastha temple in Painganadu.
Around 350 kms south of Chennai, in Thiruvarur district, the village wore a festive look as posters and banners, hailing Kamala Harris, were put up along the streets. Scores of residents walked to the Dharmasastha temple to offer prayers on Tuesday. Kamala’s maternal grand-father P.V. Gopalan hails from this village.
“We want her to win and so we offered special poojas. We are happy that she is from our village. Her family is still connected to the village,” says one of the residents.
Dr Sarala Gopalan, Gopalan’s daughter who lives in Chennai, had donated money for renovation and conducting consecration of the temple, only to maintain their maternal connections with the temple. Gopalan’s name is seen sculpted in the list of donors, on a stone, in the temple.
The divine interventions had helped the family earlier when Kamala Harris contested the California Attorney Democratic General primary election in 2010. Dr Sarala had offered prayers at one of the temples in Chennai, praying for her victory, and broken 198 coconuts.
Gopalan, a diplomat himself, and his family had moved out of Thulasenthirapuram decades back, but posters and banners have been put up in every street corner of the village, with the image of Kamala and the White House in the background.
“We hope she wins,” says Gurunathan, one of the villagers who organised the special prayer.
Born to Dr Shyamala Gopalan and Jamaican Donald Harris, Kamala had recalled her roots and the long beach walks she had with her grandfather, saying how it had shaped her childhood and life.
