Indian village prays for Kamala Harris' win

“From Thulasenthirapuram to America. US vice presidential candidate contestant from the native Thulasenthirapuram, Kamala Harris. We wish her great success,” read posters put up in the US politician's ancestral village in southern India.

Well, the entire village of Thulasenthirapuram, barely 300 km from Tamil Nadu's state capital Chennai, prayed for the victory of Harris' Democratic Party as the high stakes presidential polls kicked off in the US on Tuesday morning.

In fact, Harris' maternal grandfather PV Gopalan, a former Indian civil servant, was born in Thulasenthirapuram. The US Senator's mother Shyamala Gopalan had relocated to the US to pursue her research in her field of study -- cancer. Her economist father was a Jamaican.

Free idli (a savoury rice cake popular in southern India) and sambhar (lentil soup) were also reportedly distributed to all residents of the village during the day. The cakes are produced by steaming a batter consisting of fermented black lentils and rice.

A couple of days back, Harris had listed idli and "really good sambar" and "any kind of tikka" as her favourite Indian dishes. "So South Indian, it would be idli with... a really good sambar, and then North Indian -- probably any kind of tikka (meat ball)," she responded to a poser.

On August 11, the 56-year-old US senator from California became the first woman of colour and the first person of Indian origin to be nominated as the Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden's running for the elections in 2020.

Being the eldest daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, Harris' nomination has been widely seen as historic not only in the US but also across the Caribbean as well as the sub-continent.

Biden, 77, and Harris are pitted against Republican incumbents, President Donald Trump, 74, and his Vice President Mike Pence in the US presidential election.