'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.'
The road leading to Thulasendrapuram in Tamil Nadu is very good. One of the reasons could be that the current chief minister belongs to this district.
This village has been in the limelight since Kamala Harris was elected vice president of the United States of America in 2020.
It returned to the news when she was nominated as the Democratic presidential candidate after Joe Biden withdrew from the race 16 weeks ago.
The village is home to the Dharma Sastha temple, the family shrine of P V Gopalan, Harris' maternal grandfather.
The temple wall shows a donation from Gopalan and, much later, a donation from Kamala Harris. There is no donation from Dr Shyamala Gopalan, Kamala's mother.
The village boasts of an anganwadi for tiny tots, primary school, a high school -- for the higher secondary school one had to go to the neighbouring village. Surprisingly, none of the students in these schools have heard of Kamala Harris.
The agraharam, the brahmin enclave, in Thulasendrapuram is deserted as the noon sun beats down mercilessly. An old man points out the plot where Gopalan once lived. There are a few wooden logs lying there now.
Since Gopalan sold the plot, he adds it has changed hands four times but no one has built on it.
As we wait on a porch an elderly lady comes out and says forcefully, "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 you people keep coming here and asking us questions about her. WE DON'T KNOW."
We beat a hasty retreat and head back to the temple. It is crowded and people are following the election results in the United States of America.
The temple priest tells us that they had performed the first puja when Harris was nominated for president and the second puja when the counting commenced on Tuesday. The third puja was meant for when she won.
As Harris started falling behind Donald Trump in the race for 270 electoral votes, they decide to perform another puja immediately to provide her with a divine booster, but it does not work.
The temple is packed with media-persons. The ABC Australia reporter has flown from New Delhi, another journalist from Delhi says he is reporting for a Japanese news agency. The PTI reporter is, of course, there, along with journalists from the Tamil news channel Puthiyatamilagam.
Joy Holtz from Chicago was travelling in India and decided to visit this village as she is a Kamala Harris supporter.
"I am very upset and disappointed. I was very happy when she became vice president and was hoping to see her as president. Now we will have four years of chaos. Let us see and hope for the best," says Holtz who will travel to Abu Dhabi for three days before meeting her daughter in Barcelona.
The minute Kamala Harris lost, the sole villager in the temple leaves along with the priest.
The reporters are silenced for a brief while, then they all decide to get a quote from Joy, who gladly obliges them.
We have driven seven hours from Chennai and it takes us nine hours to get back. All to find a connect that never was.
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com
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