Laugh Kamala, laugh

Ever since Kamala Harris—daughter to a scientist mother born in Tamil Nadu, and father from Jamaica—became the presumptive nominee for the US presidential elections, the internet has lit up with bite-sized memes and videos of her.

- BARKHA DUTT

Some of these are made by supporters of Donald Trump that seek to criticise her but really end up doing the opposite, solidifying her place, especially among female voters.

Take the memes about her so called ‘cackle’. There’s a brilliant riposte by Kamala herself. In an interview with actor Drew Barrymore, Kamala credited her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, for her loud laugh. For us, in India, the following description is completely relatable: “I have my mother’s laugh and I grew up around a bunch of women in particular who laughed from the belly. They laughed—they would sit around the kitchen drinking their coffees, and telling big stories with big laughs,” Kamala told Barrymore. Replace the coffee with chai and that could be our masis (maternal aunts), our ammas (mothers), our aajis (grandmothers), laughing uproariously, and without apology.