AT AN HOUR'S drive from the city of Thanjavur is a small village in Mannargudi in south Tamil Nadu. At first glance, there is nothing special about Thulasendrapuram-an agrarian village in the Cauvery delta in Thiruvarur district. The surrounding villages, however, cannot match its fame. In 2020, a woman with roots in the village rose to the second highest office in the world's most powerful country. Four years later, she is all set to run for president.
The heart of Thulasendrapuram is a Dharma Sastha temple. Posters and banners of Vice President Kamala Harris have sprung up around the temple. A kilometre from the temple is a long, narrow, muddy path that leads to the agraharam-the Brahmin settlement. There are a few houses, painted white and saffron, here but there are many vacant plots, too. Most of the families have moved out.
"Gopalan Iyer's house was on the opposite lane," says N. Lalitha, wife of a priest in the village. "It is a vacant plot now. They must have moved out of the village many decades ago." Nonetheless, Lalitha takes pride in calling Thulasendrapuram "Kamala Harris's village".
This story is from the August 11, 2024 edition of THE WEEK India.
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This story is from the August 11, 2024 edition of THE WEEK India.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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