WASHINGTON: The actress Mindy Kaling joked about outing Kamala Harris as an Indian in a cooking video — on making dosas — that went viral. She was trolling Donald Trump and his supporters, who had weaponized the 2019 video to argue that Harris was Indian before she “turned” black. But the tactic fizzled, with copious records of Harris also embracing her black identity from childhood.On Wednesday, Kaling, born Vera Chokalingam, took centerstage to host day three of the Democratic convention, talking up Harris and bringing an Indian flavor to proceedings that are reflecting America’s diversity at a time MAGA Republicans are turning more insular.
Revisiting the cooking cameo when Harris had just been elected Senator, Kaling said they immediately hit it off and talked about the love they have for their mothers who passed away from cancer. “Both of our mothers were immigrants from India who came to America and committed their lives to serving others,” she said, recalling that her mother Swati was an Ob-Gyn and Harris’ mother Shyamala was a scientist in the field of cancer research and how she felt immediately that Harris’ mother had passed on the same commitment to humanity and serving others that had guided her life.
“But the thing I remember the most about the vice president,” Kaling said, “is that Kamala Harris can cook. Guys, she was so much better than me. But she also knew that my family was watching, so as she gently corrected my sloppy dosa making, she was complimenting me every step of the way.”
Indeed, Harris extensively-chronicled cooking portfolio — not just Indian, but a wider range including Caribbean — is fast becoming a talking point considering few US Presidents before Obama (who once talked of his expertise with daal and keema) discuss their culinary skills. During her short-lived 2019 Presidential campaign, Harris would often hit up legacy family owned restaurants for dinner and then slip into the kitchen to ask owners for family recipes.
She has not reflected much on food on this campaign, other than talking about her gigs at McDonalds before she went to college. Even that elicited a self-deprecatory comment from former President Bill Clinton, like Trump a one-time fast food fetishist, who joked, “I will be so happy when Kamala Harris actually enters the White House as president because she will break my record as the president who spent the most time at McDonald’s.”
Kaling’s dosa story was not the only Indian touch on the day that saw the quintessential American dad Tim Walz accept the vice-presidential nomination. The evening began with invocation by Rakesh Bhatt, a Hindu priest at the Sri Siva Vishnu Temple outside Washington DC, on the theme of vasudaiva kutumbakam, the world as one family. Through the evening, cameras panned several times to Sikh delegates in colorful turbans that highlighted the diversity of the Democratic gathering. Harris’ niece and nephews too came on stage to talk up the candidate they called “aunty” — a term she dislikes, going by the cooking video where she tells Mindy she prefers to be called Kamala rather than aunty.
Revisiting the cooking cameo when Harris had just been elected Senator, Kaling said they immediately hit it off and talked about the love they have for their mothers who passed away from cancer. “Both of our mothers were immigrants from India who came to America and committed their lives to serving others,” she said, recalling that her mother Swati was an Ob-Gyn and Harris’ mother Shyamala was a scientist in the field of cancer research and how she felt immediately that Harris’ mother had passed on the same commitment to humanity and serving others that had guided her life.
“But the thing I remember the most about the vice president,” Kaling said, “is that Kamala Harris can cook. Guys, she was so much better than me. But she also knew that my family was watching, so as she gently corrected my sloppy dosa making, she was complimenting me every step of the way.”
Indeed, Harris extensively-chronicled cooking portfolio — not just Indian, but a wider range including Caribbean — is fast becoming a talking point considering few US Presidents before Obama (who once talked of his expertise with daal and keema) discuss their culinary skills. During her short-lived 2019 Presidential campaign, Harris would often hit up legacy family owned restaurants for dinner and then slip into the kitchen to ask owners for family recipes.
She has not reflected much on food on this campaign, other than talking about her gigs at McDonalds before she went to college. Even that elicited a self-deprecatory comment from former President Bill Clinton, like Trump a one-time fast food fetishist, who joked, “I will be so happy when Kamala Harris actually enters the White House as president because she will break my record as the president who spent the most time at McDonald’s.”
Kaling’s dosa story was not the only Indian touch on the day that saw the quintessential American dad Tim Walz accept the vice-presidential nomination. The evening began with invocation by Rakesh Bhatt, a Hindu priest at the Sri Siva Vishnu Temple outside Washington DC, on the theme of vasudaiva kutumbakam, the world as one family. Through the evening, cameras panned several times to Sikh delegates in colorful turbans that highlighted the diversity of the Democratic gathering. Harris’ niece and nephews too came on stage to talk up the candidate they called “aunty” — a term she dislikes, going by the cooking video where she tells Mindy she prefers to be called Kamala rather than aunty.
