Kamala D. Harris

Dr. Gopal Sharma

• Publisher: Diamond Books
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9789390960422
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

Kamala Devi Harris was elected the Vice President of the US after a lifetime of public service. This well-researched book presents her true and complete story. It is the life-experience of a woman who failed not once but twice but never gave up. Apart from tracing her inspirational journey, the book also sheds light on her formative years as the daughter of Shyamala Gopalan. The American success story that began on Indian soil is heart-warming and exciting. How her family in India help shape her universal values is a lesson for you if you wish to realize your dreams.

1. The Inauguration:
A Lotus Bloomed

‘Many cultures have naming ceremonies. It is a gift that is an incredible, familial gift. The family gives the child a name and so I come at it from that: not about myself, but for everyone ... Respect the names that people are given and use those names with respect.’

—Kamala Harris

I begin the story - in the middle- in medias res. I have to. I begin citing the words spoken by Kamala Harris in her victory speech: “Now is when the real work begins, the necessary work, the good work, the essential work, to unite our country and heal the soul of our nation.”

The date was January 20^th, 2021. This was the day when a new beginning was made in the US (United States Capitol, Washington, D.C.). The inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46^th President of the United States took place on January 20, 2021, marking the commencement of the four-year term of Joe Biden as President and Kamala Harris as Vice President.

Kamala Devi Harris is the 49^th Vice President of the United States. She is Ms Harris. She is Harris. She is Kamala Devi. She is Kamala. The name was given by her Indian mother Shyamala. In India, we show intimacy, reverence and friendliness by addressing a person by her first name. In my narration, I will address her as “Kamala” more than Harris, Ms Harris, Kamala Harris etc.

I am going to start narrating the story of Shyamala’s daughter Kamala. Kamala Devi Harris who became the Vice President of the US is the central character of my story. Kamala Devi Harris is the name that represents the planet we call the mother earth. She is herself an incarnation of the heavenly. Therefore, I needn’t invoke any muse as John Milton did years ago, “Sing, heavenly muse.”

What is in a name?

A lot, if it’s Kamala Devi Harris.

I am not a versifier. But I got one. Her name is Nikki Grimes. Let me present her verse so that Shakespeare’s above cited line could be somewhat balanced.

Life is a story

You write day by day

Kamala’s begins with a name

That means “lotus flower”

See how her beautiful smile

Open wide, like petals

Fanning across the water’s surface?

They grow deep, deep, deep down

Let me show you.

Now that Kamala Harris, Kamala Devi Harris, is the Vice President of America, you will not ask the question often asked before. Who is she after all?

“Linguistically speaking, we might say, as Amie Thomason argued in her book “Norms and Necessity”, a species term fails to refer rather than that it refers to “little robots’.”

“How many plausible candidates do the Democrats have now?”

“Three: Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, and Kamala Harris.”

“Didn’t you hear? It’s all been an elaborate hoax. There is no Kamala Harris. What people took to be Harris was just a robot designed by Apple!”

The direction we take may depend on our interests- depend on the enduring interests of the language community in employing terms like these. For Indian, Kamala is different, for Americans “Kamala” may not sound the same.

Her name consists of three words: Kamala, Devi, and Harris and all the three words can tell you a story of its own. How you pronounce “Kamala” will reveal who you are. An Indian will pronounce it as “Ka-ma-laa.”An American would very comically say something like “Comma-lah.” Republican Sen. David Perdue mocked Senator Kamala derisively mispronouncing her name during a campaign rally in Georgia, “Kamala? Kamala? Kamala- mala-mala? I don’t know. Whatever.” Donald Trump refused to pronounce her name correctly and after the vice-presidential debate, he made fun of her calling her as a “monster.” Once upon a time, mispronouncing her first name became a common attack within the Trump camp. When the Fox News host Tucker Carlson wrongly pronounced Ms Harris’s name and refused to correct, political consultant Richard very aptly suggested to him, “ I think out of respect for someone who is going to be on the national ticket, pronouncing her name right…is kind of a bare minimum.” Objecting Senator Perdue’s statement Democratic Jon Ossoff tweeted, “Senator Perdue never would have done this to a male colleague. Or a white colleague. And everyone knows it.”

Before I move further, let me caution my readers. I am an Indian and I have no issues with her name. I pronounce her name correctly. Indians pronounce her name as it should be. But others find it difficult. Some find it funny. There are full length articles on this topic. Ken Thomas (February 15, 2013) wrote an extensively sturdy article “You Say ‘Ka-MiLLA.’ I Say ‘KUH-ma-la’ Both are wrong”. On the “Tom Joyner Morning Show”, journalist Roland S. Martin opened an interview with Kamala Harris with this query: “Is it ‘COMMA-la”, or ‘KUH-ma-la?’ ”

“It’s ‘COMMA-la,’” Ms. Harris replied with a laugh. “Just think of “calm.” At least I try to be most of the time.”

Kate Woodsome in an opinion piece published in The Washington Post (January 22, 2021) says, “You don’t need to like Kamala Harris. But you should say her name properly.” It is also added that “not making the effort to say someone’s name correctly is a sign of disrespect, when it’s done intentionally, it’s downright racist.”

I have a suggestion to offer. The name “Kamala” has three letters: Ka-ma-la. The first two letters can be safely pronounced as ‘come’ (unaspirated) and the last one is “laa” as in laugh. Kamala Harris too has this to say in her autobiography-cum-memoir:

“First, my name is pronounced “comma-la” like the punctuation mark. It means “lotus flower,” which is a symbol of significance in Indian culture. A lotus grows underwater, its flower rising above the surface while its roots are planted firmly in the river bottom. And second, I want you to know how personal this is for me. This is the story of my family. It is the story of my childhood. It is the story of the life I have built since then. You’ll meet my family and my friends, my colleagues and my team. I hope you will cherish them as I do and, through my telling, see that nothing I have ever accomplished could have been done on my own. (Truths We Hold: An American Journey)”

I have nothing more to say. This is mere inauguration. But I am sure she is not “Komala” (tender), figuratively and etymologically both.

Look at the multicoloured Kolam. It was made for the inauguration by hundreds of artists, citizens and students across India. Many Indians believe Kolam symbolizes positive energy and new beginnings. Several news outlets played on Harris’ first name with the headline “America Mein Khila Kamal” (a lotus bloomed in America), and an Indian politician called her VP nomination a “moment of pride for Indians.” The festival of Light was celebrated not only in a remote village of Tamil Nadu; it was celebrated in Africa by me. In the US, she was included among so many extraordinary women- Malala Yousafzai, Dolores Hurenta, Ruth Asawa, Serena Williams and Anne Frank in a mural at her alma mater Thousand Oaks Elementary School.

Celebrating Kamala Harris as America’s first woman Vice President, a unique glass portrait in her honour has been unveiled in front of the historic Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. It uniquely embodies her glass-shattering achievement. Congratulations!

❒

2. That Girl was me

‘I was raised by a mother who said to me all the time, ‘Kamala, you may be the first to do many things — make sure you’re not the last.’

—Kamala Harris

“I was born on Oakland, California, on October 20, 1964. My father, Donald Harris, was a professor of Economics. My Mother, Shyamala was a researcher in breast cancer. Both of my parents had immigrated to the United States. My father was from Jamaica and my mother was from India. My younger sister, Maya, was born in 1967. This is the original Harris family.” She said.

“The meeting of the two-my father and my mother- has a bewitching tale to tell. I can tell you my story myself. But I am too busy to narrate it again and again. Let me depute Professor Sharma to retell it making it in the most befitting and interesting manner. I will also not disappear and disappoint you. I promise to you to reappear frequently in the course of the journey.”

Meeting together

From India, Miss Shyamala Gopalan came to pursue higher studies in the US. But the life changed when she met Donald Harris who also came with similar goal from another foreign land. They met and fell in love at Berkeley while participating in the civil rights movement.

In the fall of 1962, Donald Harris spoke at a meeting of the Afro American Association. It was a students’ group at Berkeley whose members would go on to establish the discipline of Black Studies, propose the holiday of Kwanza, and help form the Black Panther Party. After his talk, he met a graduate student in nutrition and endocrinology from India at Cal Berkeley who was in the audience. According to Donald Harris, “We talked then, continued to talk at a subsequent meeting, and at another, and another.”

How astonishing are the ways of the world! Nay I would say the God. Donald Harris and Shyamala Gopalan belonged to two different worlds. But the fate drew them closer to each other. They were each drawn to Berkeley from two different sides of the planet. They found themselves mentally compatible and thus became part of an intellectual circle that shaped the rest of their lives.

Marriage

Shyamala Gopalan and Donald Harris married in 1963, the year after Jamaica gained her own independence from the United Kingdom. Their wedding announcement in the Kingston Gleaner on November 1, 1963 reported that they were both pursuing their Ph.Ds.

Thank God! Until 1967, it was not legally allowed in at least 16 American states that persons of different races could marry. If California had been one of these states, India’s Shyamala and Jamaica’s Donald could not have married in 1963. If they didn’t marry, the story had not gone so far.

And they both got married in the foreign land. No one from their respective families attended the wedding. We don’t know the reason. Even her dear brother couldn’t attend as he had just gone off to study in Britain and it was difficult to travel without some extra amount to spare.

Happy Married Life

Let us go back again in time. The time when Shyamala and Donald were together, they rocked literally and figuratively. Amartya Sen who was teaching at Berkeley at the time has this to say about them. “They had a lot of friends and they were growing roots.” They led a very happy married life for some time. In fact, they stood out, “with their upper-crust accents and air of intellectual confidence. Mr Harris was “reserved and academic” and Mrs Harris was “warm” and “charming”. Anne Williams has this to say about her. “You could tell she was “for the people” quote unquote, even though she had an aura of royalty about her. Here was a woman, deeply brown, and yet she could have flowed from one set to another in terms of race.” She was a passionate speaker, fiery and thorough. He was calm and composed.

Kamala: Daughter of Oakland

The year Shyamala received her PhD at age twenty five, the same year Kamala was born. She was born at Oakland, California’s Kaiser Hospital on October 20, 1964. It was more than a coincidence that she was born in California and just came to this world a couple of days before Election. It must have been natural that the parents paid more attention to election than to their new-born child.

A copy of her birth certificate shows that she was born at Kaiser Hospital Oakland at 9.28 p.m. 1964. It lists her mother’s residence on Regent Street in Berkeley. There was one alteration found in her birth record that many parents can relate to. About two weeks after she was born, her parents filed an “affidavit to correct a record.” They changed her middle name from Iyer to Devi. (David Debolt, August 18, 2020).

Kamala is often called the “Daughter of Oakland” as she was born in the East Bay city to two immigrant parents. To a direct response to the “birther movement”, her response has always been quick and precise. Birth place: Kaiser Oakland.

The MacArthur Boulevard hospital where Donald Harris and Shyamala Gopalan held their daughter for the first time is gone forever. It no longer exists. The building had been taken down as it was too old to sustain.

Kamala’s parents had two daughters together. Maya was born about two years after Kamala.

The author of the book “Berkeley : A city in History” Wollenberg notes, “In 1964, the year of Kamala’s birth, the Free Speech Movement, the first great student protest of that era exploded in Berkeley and helped give birth to the student New Left. When she was one year old, Vietnam Day on the Cal campus began a decade to anti-war activism, and when she was 2, the Black Panther Party started in South Berkeley and North Oakland. By then, Telegraph Avenue had become a major locale of the decade’s counter culture.”

Little Kamala was the daughter of activism and was looked after during momentous times. Let me give you an illustration.

Fweedom

Donald Harris and Shyamala Gopalan were in the thick of the civil rights movement. Baby Kamala participated in such protests. Kamala Harris narrates one of the incidents in her autobiography:

“My parents often brought me in a stroller with them to civil rights marches. I have young memories of a sea of legs moving about, of the energy and shouts and chants. Social justice was a central part of family discussions. My mother would laugh telling a story she loved about the time when I was fussing as a toddler.”

“What do you want?”

She asked, trying to soothe me. “Fweedom!” I yelled back.

Mr Harris and Mrs Shyamala were not just protesters. They were “big thinkers, pushing big ideas, organizing their community.” They were not just talking but were ready to fight for their views.

The story how kid Kamala said, “Fweedom” appears in her 2010 book, “Smart on Crime” and also in her autobiographical book “The Truths We Hold: An American Journey.” In October 2020, Kamala Harris was interviewed by Elle Magazine about her fight for justice. The readers found that Kamala’s story about a civil rights protest she attended with her parents as a toddler was very similar to an anecdote from the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In the interview also Kamala Harris said, “My mother tells the story about how I’m fussing and she’s like, “Baby, what do you want? What do you need?” And I just looked at her and I said, “Fweedom.” MLK’s interview in 1965 with Playboy tells the story in a similar way.

“I never will forget a moment in Birmingham when a white policeman accosted a little Negro girl, seven or eight years old, which was walking in a demonstration with her mother. “What doo you want?” the policeman asked her gruffly, and the little girl looked him straight in the eye and answered, “Fee-dom.” she couldn’t even pronounce it, but she knew. It was beautiful! Many times when I have been in sorely trying situations, the memory of that little one has come into my mind, and has buoyed me.”

As a prudent reader, you are already aware of the distinction between happening truth and historical truth. “Happening truth” is the actual events that happen, and is the foundation or time line on which the story is built on. “Story truth” is the moulding or re-shaping of the “happening truth” that allows the story to be believable and enjoyable.

Run! Kamala, Run!

As a child Kamala loved the outdoors. When she was a little girl, her father liked her to run free. He would turn to her mother and say, “Just let her run, Shyamala” and then he’d turn to his daughter and say, “Run, Kamala. As fast as you can, run!”

Kamala would run as fast as her tiny feet could take her. The wind in her face and the feeling that she could do anything made her run as the child artist runs in the film Forrest Gump.

Don’t you remember these lines of the film, “Run, Forrest! Run!”

She used to run unmindful of her scraped knees as she knew that her mother was there to apply Band-Aids.

There were merry-making all around. Those early days were “happy and free.” The entire family loved music and singing. Her father was her mother’s firs...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Preface
• 1. The inauguration: A lotus bloomed
• 2. The Girl was me
• 3. I’m speaking
• 4. Identity Matters
• 5. We are the family
• 6. Experiment with the truth
• 7. I am who I am
• Appendix
• References