When Vivek Ramaswamy stole the limelight at the first Republican US presidential debate earlier this week, the residents of the quaint, little village of Vadakkencherry, 35 km from Palakkad, Kerala, were over the moon. The Indian-American biotech entrepreneur would make his presence felt in the village when he and his brother, Sankar, would accompany their parents, Ganapthy Ramaswamy and Geetha, for their annual vacations. “As a former employee of General Electric (with whom he put in 40 years), Ramaswamy used to come down for two-week visits,” recounts VS Venkataraman, former president of the Vadakkencherry Gramajana Samooham (villagers’ society), who stays next to Vivek’s ancestral house.
The fact that Vivek touched upon his parents’ roots during the debate in Milwaukee pointed to the close bond he shares with his village. He spoke of his parents’ early struggles and how America supported his growth. When asked why voters should choose him, Vivek added, “I’m the outsider on this stage. I’m not a politician. My parents came to this country 40 years ago with no money, and I’ve gone on to set up multibillion-dollar companies. I did it while getting married to my wife Apoorva and raising our two sons. That’s the American Dream.”
“Theirs is a family of specialist doctors,” says Venkataraman, “and includes cardiologists, an oncologist, a psychiatrist and paediatrician”. Vivek’s late grandfather, CR Ganapathy, was from Kalpathy—an area of agraharams (traditional Brahmin colony) in Palakkad. Vivek’s grandmother, 95-year-old Thankam Ammal, lives with her children in the US. Of Ganapathy’s seven children, six are in the US. One of his four sisters lives with her family in Kalpathy. After completing his schooling in Vadakkencherry, Ramaswamy Senior did his pre-degree from Government Victoria College and his engineering at REC Calicut (presently NIT Calicut). One of his sisters, Brinda, who moved to the US after her marriage, asked him to accompany her to pursue his higher studies.
He completed his MS and doctoral degrees there. He married Geetha, a psychiatrist from Tripunithara. In 1985, a boy was born to the couple who they named Vivek Ganapathy Ramaswamy. “Vadakkencherry village has three deities—Sree Mahaganapathy, Lakshmi Narayana Perumal and Simhanadha Bhagavathy. Ramaswamy’s family received their abundant blessings,” says Venkataraman. Ganapathy Ramaswamy also holds a degree in patent law, says VM Prasad, a relative who accompanied Vivek’s parents to Sabarimala early this year and saw them off at Nedumbassery airport the next day. “It was after his parents returned to the US that Vivek decided to contest the US presidential elections,” Prasad adds.
“Unlike their usual two-week vacations, Vivek’s parents spent one-and-a-half months, after arriving in February, touring pilgrimage spots, including Mookambika, Sabarimala and Tirupathi,” says Prasad. As a student, Vivek excelled at extempore public speaking and was interested in extracurricular activities. “During his parents’ visit this year, they made oblique references to Vivek’s interest in politics. Once while studying law at Yale, Vivek wanted to understand the functioning of the Indian judicial system, and my father, VS Muthuswamy, a leading lawyer, took him to the court located inside the Palakkad civil station,” Prasad says. “We regularly chat with Ramaswamy and Geetha, but it’s been a while since I spoke to Vivek. I have not been able to congratulate him for his performance at the Republican debate,” says Janaki, wife of one of Ramaswamy’s first cousins, who lives in Vadakkencherry. “We were a joint family. Ramaswamy left for America when he was 21,” she adds. If Rishi Sunak can make it to 10 Downing Street, the White House cannot be a distant dream for our boy, say the villagers of Vadakkencherry.