BENGALURU: Pramila Jayapal on Wednesday became the first Indian-American woman to be elected to the U S House of Representatives, winning a Washington State Senate seat.
Jayapal, 51, was born in Chennai and her parents are from Palakkad in Kerala. Her father Jayapala Menon and mother, writer Maya Jayapal now live in Bengaluru. Pramila left India when she was five and was brought up in Indonesia and Singapore.
Maya Jayapal told Express, “Both her father and I are thrilled and proud at her victory. We spoke to her this morning congratulating her after the speech. She was here in Bengaluru last December. She was supposed to come this year but was busy with the elections. She loves this city. I hope to visit her for her swearing in ceremony.”
Pramila grew up in Bengaluru in 1968-69 as a three-year-old.
Her mother, on the other hand, graduated from Mount Carmel College. She fell in love with the city and even wrote books on the city -- ‘Bangalore: Roots and Beyond’ and ‘Bangalore: The story of a city’.