Thousands of km away from US, TN villagers celebrate Kamala’s win

By Venkatachari Jagannathan Chennai, Nov 8 : As the news of Kamal Harris’ election as the new Vice-President of the US began to pour in, villagers thousands of km away in Thulasendrapuram in Tamil Nadu celebrated the occasion by bursting crackers and distributing sweets.
No surprises here, because Harris’ maternal grandfather PV Gopalan hailed from Thulasendrapuram village located in Tiruvarur district. Some days ago, they had even held special prayers at Sri Dharmasastha Temple in their village for her victory.
The villagers drew big ‘kolams’ outside their homes to wish good luck to Harris. Big banners with pictures of the Democratic nominee were also put up by villages at some spots.
Earlier, when she was nominated as the running mate of presidential candidate Joe Biden, villagers had celebrated by distributing sweets.
But it not the first time that people in Tamil Nadu have prayed for the victory of an American candidate in the US presidential elections. In 2008, when Barack Obama and John McCain slugged it out, people of hosiery town Tiruppur had prayed for Obama’s win.
The economy of the knitwear garment exporting town of Tirupur, almost 400 km from state capital Chennai, is driven almost entirely by exports to more than 35 countries, with the biggest market in the US.