Hours before the US presidential elections, special prayers were held for Democrat candidate Kamala Harris's victory at her ancestral village in Tamil Nadu.
Thulasendrapuram, a small village in Tamil Nadu, is where the late Indian American scientist Shyamala Gopalan's parents were born. Dr Gopalan is, of course, Kamala Harris' mother and someone the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate often cites as the biggest influence on her life.
Kamala's role as vice president was more than just symbolic. Unlike her predecessors, she wielded considerable power during Biden's presidency.
Loomer, 31, often seen as a right-wing conspiracy theorist, made the remark while commenting on a photo posted by Harris on National Grandparents Day in which the vice president talked about her grandparents from India.
'Her grandfather left the village more than 70 years ago. None of her family is here. Nobody from her gothram is here. The people who knew her grandfather are long dead. I cannot understand why people keep coming here and asking us questions about her.'
She is also the first ever Indian American to be nominated as presidential candidate of either the Republican or the Democratic party.
A peek into the life of United States Vice President Kamala Harris, the likely Democratic presidential nominee.
'Kamala likes south Indian food.' 'She likes a special rasam which her husband also likes, she likes coconut rice, she likes puri aloo...'
Harris, who is of Indian and African heritage, has received the backing from more than the 1,976 pledged delegates needed to win the Democratic Party's nomination on the first ballot, CNN reported on the first full day of her campaign.
Kamala has finessed bubblegum conversation about whether she is Black or Indian. Her Irrelevancing-approach, an Irrelevance-code if you will, is Elevated and Elegant -- this is the Elevance of Kamala! asserts economist Dr Anuradha Luther Maitra.
Describing her Republican rival Donald Trump as an unserious man, Kamala Harris warned Americans of the consequences of re-electing him for the second term.
'I think of that young baby, still in her diapers, balancing with her arms held up by her mother, a Tamil woman wearing a salwar kameez and a dupatta, seated on a stoop,' recalls Aseem Chhabra.
Kamala Harris used her forceful presidential acceptance speech to present herself as a leader who could unite the country to chart a 'new way forward' and warned Americans of 'extremely serious' consequences of putting her Republican rival Donald Trump back in the White House.
'The die is cast. The wave is for her.' 'We will win this. The numbers are going to be higher than people are saying.' 'It is going to be more closer to Obama's numbers than Biden's numbers.'
Harris remembered her late mother Shyamala Gopalan, a cancer researcher and civil rights activist from India, saying she has always carried that lesson from her mother with her throughout her career from serving as the first woman District Attorney of San Francisco, to the first woman Attorney General of California, and the first woman of colour to represent California in the United States Senate.
Musings on love, life and everything in between.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's nearly hour-long address to the United States Congress evoked multiple standing ovations, applauses and cheers from American lawmakers and chants of 'Modi, Modi' from members of the diaspora community sitting in the grand House Chamber at the US Capitol in Washington, DC.
Prime Minister Modi's remarks on Thursday came during his address to a joint session of the US Congress. He attributed a big part of the success of India-US ties to Indian-Americans.
Wishing and greeting her with 'Vanakkam,' Stalin said it was a matter of pride for the state's people that America's first woman vice president-elect has a link to Tamil Nadu as her mother hailed from the state.
The village has been in the news since the day, Democratic candidate Joe Biden chose Kamla Harris as his running mate and vice presidential nominee.
'Your being elected as the Vice President of America has been such an important and historic event. You are the source of inspiration for so many people around the world,' Modi said.
India and the US are working with renewed trust in areas of new and emerging technologies, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday as he thanked the American leadership for giving him a grand welcome.
Delhi-based Balachandran said he was feeling "proud and happy", describing Harris as a fighter.
Gopalan Balachandran recalls his eldest sister Dr Sushila Gopalan and her daughter Kamala who is now the US vice-president-elect.
Harris opened her vice-presidential acceptance speech on Wednesday night at the virtual Democratic National Convention by remembering her late mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, lamenting the fact that she could not be there to see her daughter's achievement.
Kamala and her younger sister Maya are incredibly close.
Will she or won't she, is the question that has set social media abuzz. For those wondering, the question is whether or not US Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will wear a sari on Inauguration Day to invoke her Indian heritage.
In the first address as United States Vice President-elect, Kamala Harris thanked people of the United States "for turning out in record number" and said Americans have ushered in a "new day" for the country.
The one-of-a-kind broken glass medium used by the artist Simon Berger to create the portrait uniquely embodies Harris' glass-shattering achievement.
Balachandran said that he would encourage Kamala Harris like any other parent and advice her to continue the good work.
Thulasenthirapuram and Painganadu villages in Tamil Nadu celebrate their daughter's victory.
Harris recounted how she and her team got a call that Biden wanted to talk and then got another call where she was told Biden wanted to do a zoom call. She described how she went in "our little makeshift office" and then when the call started Biden immediately asked her to join the ticket. After referring to her mother, Harris also described how husband Doug Emhoff's ear was on the door outside the room listening in on the call. Eventually Jill Biden and Emhoff joined the call with Biden and Harris.
Harris, the 49th US Vice President, will serve as the deputy of President Joe Biden, 78, who also took the oath of office, becoming the 46th US President.
The road will be difficult but I know Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will lead us all together to a better future. I am so proud to share this historical moment with my children. And I invite all Indian Americans to join me, says Rupa Kale.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris formally announced her campaign for the United States Senate on Tuesday. Her announcement came after US Senator Barbara Boxer announced that she would retire when her term ends in 2017.
The conspiracy theory about Harris started following a Newsweek Op-Ed by Dr John Eastman, who ran in the Republican primary to be California's attorney general in 2010. Trump did not give his opinion on it but acknowledged that he has heard about such claims circulating on social media that Harris is not eligible to be the president of the United States.
She is the first black woman elected to the upper chamber in more than two decades.
The quaint little village of Perumapalayam near Erode is excited about Indian American, Dr Celine Gounder making it to the United States President-elect Joe Biden's COVID-19 advisory board since she has her roots in it and for her continuing support to its residents.
The 56-year-old Democratic Senator from California, who on Saturday became America's first female, first Black and first South Asian vice president-elect, represents a new face of political power.
An influential immigration advocacy group representing Indian-Americans on Thursday urged the Biden administration not to issue the most sought-after H-1B work visa to any individual born in India, till the time the discriminatory country-cap on green cards or permanent legal residency is removed. The current per-country cap on issuing of green cards in the US has resulted in Indian professionals, mostly from the IT sector, having to wait for decades for their legal permanent residency. Issuing new H-1B visas to more Indians would add to this agonising painful wait for green cards, Immigration Voice said in a statement.
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