Palakkad: “Ayyappaa...,” 76-year-old Thampurankutty, a member of the erstwhile Puzhakkalidam royal family, calls out as V S Venkitaraman steps out of his home.
“Yennachu, avanodu yedhaavuthu update vandhirukka; trend eppadi irukku?” (What's happening? Any update about our boy? How’s the trend now?), the septuagenarian asks eagerly.
For Venkitaraman (Ayyappan for his friends and family) of Vadakkencherry Agraharam, this curious questioning has become a routine affair ever since Vivek Ramaswamy joined the race for the US Republican presidential candidate and started campaigning for the party primaries.
The Indian-origin American entrepreneur has his roots in Vadakkencherry in Palakkad district. The Agraharam, the Tamil-Brahmin village, where his father was born and raised, keeps a keen interest in his prospects.
“Annaa, there has been an increase in the popularity in the past two days,” he tells Thampurankutty, who lives a few houses away from Vivek's ancestral home in the Agraharam. “The first round of debates has started and Vivek has been able to collect some $4,50,000 in donations in the first hour of the debate itself. He’s leading the debates with the maximum number of supporters.”
Then he switches to Tamil as if to reassure the elderly man. “Namma payyan kandippa jayikkuven. Unga prarthanayil irunthaal mattum pothum (keep him in your prayers and our boy will win for sure).”
Vadakkanchery remains hopeful
The 2024 Republican presidential primary season begins on January 15. Ramaswamy, the youngest in the race for Republican presidential candidate at 38, who is currently touring the important swing state of Iowa, put up a credible performance during the first debate for the Republican presidential nomination on August 23. By the end of the debate, many pundits called him the winner, though he faced a barrage of criticism after he enthusiastically supported Donald Trump's vision for America.
(Primary election is a voting process by which registered voters indicate their preference for the party's candidate for the general election. The debates are a curtain raiser to the in-party election.)
At Vadakkencherry, a quintessential Palakkad village about 30 km east of Thrissur, collective pride is palpable as residents, cutting across age and communities, remain confident that the Indian-American or namma payyan as people from Agraharam prefer to call him, will soon be seated in the Oval office.
Ramaswamy’s father V Ganapathy Ramaswamy was born and raised in Vadakkencherry till he went to Kozhikode to study at the Regional Engineering College (now NIT) before moving to the US.
“It is a proud moment that a youngster from our village is in the race for the US president’s post. We Indians have landed on the Moon. Now, we will enter the White House also,” remarks Kottarathil Sajikumar, an autorickshaw driver in Vadakkencherry town. Though he has never met Ramaswamy, Sajikumar has been reading up on the US presidential hopeful on social media and local newspapers. “My village and my country are very proud of him. He will win,” beams the 45-year-old.
Communication gap
However, with Ramaswamy's campaign gaining traction, 'it has become very difficult to communicate to the family now,' says Ayyappan, the go-to-guy for news regarding the entrepreneur-turned-politician. “Senior Ramaswamy and his family have always been an inspiration and it is a blessing that his son is now contesting to be the most powerful man on the earth,” adds Ayyappan, the former president of the Vadakkencherry Gramam, who lives across the road from ‘Srivari’, the Ramaswamy family home in Vadakkencherry.
More than 130 families reside in the Agraharam now. Many of the old houses have given way to new buildings. However, Vadakkencherry residents, in India and abroad, have maintained close connections with the village. “Every day, we all pray for Vivek’s victory,” adds Ayyappan.
“Vivek's father has six siblings. They are settled abroad and are well-off,” beams 56-year-old C H Kuriakose, who drives the family members around whenever they come to Kerala on vacations. For Kuriakose, the family, including Ramaswamy, evokes a sense of pride and honour. He’s a tad upset that he could not interact with Ramaswamy when he came to Kerala in 2018. “Like his father, Vivek is also God-fearing, simple and kind-hearted. I never knew he would enter the contest for the US presidential election,” says Kuriakose.
The famous family
In 2018, along with his parents and wife Apoorva Tewari, Vivek Ramaswamy visited various temples across South India. During the visit, they had also stayed at the houses of V M Prakash and V M Prasad, sons of his father's first cousin and famous advocate in Palakkad V S Muthuswamy.
Ramaswamy, who understands Tamil and Malayalam, had also visited the court at the Palakkad district Collectorate along with Muthuswamy.
During their annual two-month visit, Vivek's father and mother Dr Geetha visit temples, especially the Chandana Bhagavathy temple at Olavakkode, the family’s kula daivam (family deity). The family has also been supporting local temples through donations for their renovation and upkeep.
The family is known in Vadakkencherry as 'Madurai Mani Iyer Lakshmiyammal Family'. “They have donated large sums to redevelop the temples in the Agraharam – the Mahaganapathi temple, Lakshminarayana Perumal temple and Simhanatha Bhagavathi temple. It is the blessings of the almighty that everyone in the family has reached high positions in their respective fields. The entire family is a role model for the village. That’s why we fondly mention their house as ‘Gurukulam’,” said Thampurankutty.
Ramaswamy is the second richest contender in the Republican presidential primary, trailing only former US President Donald Trump, with a net worth of over $950 million. Despite their success and riches, the family is remembered for its humility and down-to-earth attitude.
“It is common to see Vivek's father in a T-shirt and mundu, and chatting up with everyone on the street,” says C Muthu, Vadakkenchery panchayat member.
“Namma payyan kandippa jayikkuven,” prophesies Ayyappan. Irrespective of whether Ramaswamy wins the Republican party nomination and eventually triumphs in the US presidential polls, for Vadakkencherry, he is already the winner – happy at having made the nondescript village popular.
