Viva Kamala Devi Harris

 I was going through a supermarket checkout in Alabama when the cheerful cashier, a young Black woman, and I got into a conversation. Noticing that her name tag said CHANDRA, I asked her if she knew what it meant. She didn’t. When I told her it meant “moon”, her face lit up with joy. “I can’t wait to get home to tell my parents”, she said.

Years later, when I heard of Kamala Harris the Senator, I wondered at her first name, knowing she was Black. Did her parents name her Kamala because they liked how it sounded? Was this another case of “Chandra”? But I came to know that Senator Harris’ mother was an Indian from Madras, and that explained Kamala.

But I did wonder why Harris did not talk about her Indian origins. Obviously, the Black aspect more attractive to voters than the Indian heritage. But, now that she is the Democratic Parties’ nominee for the Vice Presidency, her Indian heritage has received wider publicity and is certainly an asset.

Indian Americans are a formidable ethnic group in the USA. More than four million in number, they have the highest median household income, US$119,858, in the country. (For Whites, it’s $65,902.) Indian CEOs lead formidable companies: Shantanu Narayen, Adobe; Sundar Pichai, Alphabet, the parent company of Google; Satya Narayana Nadella, Microsoft; Rajeev Suri, Nokia; Punit Renjen, Deloitte; Vasant Narasimhan, Novartis; Ajaypal Singh Banga, Mastercard; and Ivan Manuel Menezes, Diageo, just to name a few. The entire list is longer. According to the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, 221,000 doctors of Indian origin are in the USA.

These Indians are, literally and metaphorically, a gold mountain. Within two days of Harris being named the VP nominee, $23 million in donations flowed into the Democratic Party campaign, although how much came from the Indian American community is not known.

Shayamalan Gopalan, Harris’ mother, left Madras at the age of 19 to study in the USA, and, after obtaining her PhD, became a cancer researcher. Harris’ sister, Maya, a prominent lawyer (she became Dean of a law school at 29), was Harris’ campaign manager in 2020.

My life has been entwined with Americana since my father bought a subscription to the Reader’s Digest when I was only 11. In those days, the USA was a beacon for the free world. Personally, my graduate studies were in the USA, at no cost to me, and my career took off there. I want the USA to do well. The debacles in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, the racial inequalities, the rabid partisanships, the disrespect for science, and government incompetence has made the USA a far cry from the country I first saw in 1984. Most hurtful has been its fall from leadership among nations. So, I am glad that the Biden-Harris partnership offers hope for a much needed change.

Sri Lanka also has a prominent link to Harris. Rohini Lakshmi Kosoglu, of Sri Lankan origin, was Senator Harris’ Chief of Staff during her campaign for the Democratic Party’s Presidential nomination.

Interesting times ahead, indeed!