Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 23: Vaddakencherry, an otherwise quiet and sleepy little town near Palakkad, is suddenly bursting with enthusiasm after its 37-year-old multimillionaire entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy announced US presidential bid.
With this announcement, the ancestral home of Vivek has become the centre of attraction for many in and around the district. His cousins too are elated.
Describing him as an achiever, Ramaswamy’s cousin V.M.Prasad said right from his college days he was a brilliant orator and was educated at Harvard and later at Yale where he pursued law.
“He has always been very ambitious and his desire was to do something in public life and that’s how he entered politics. Just 10 days back his parents were here,” said Prasad.
Another cousin of Vivek said even though his entry to politics was expected, his race in the presidential poll has come as a surprise.
“Right from his young days he was good in sports and also academics and now we are really happy,” said his cousin and said he was a regular visitor to their house, but of late he has become extremely busy.
A local who was spotted in front of Vivek’s ancestral home said definitely this sleepy little town has now become the cynosure of all eyes.
“It’s a great honour for us and this place as this is now going to be the talk of town,” said the man, while another who knows Vivek quite well opined, “We knew he had the stuff but never knew at just age 37, he would catapult to this height. We wish him success,” said another.
It was in the 70s that the parents of Vivek, V.G.Ramaswamy and his mother Dr Geetha Ramaswamy migrated to the US and the former went on to work as an engineer with General Electric while Geeta worked as a Geriatric psychiatrist in Cincinnati.
The last time Palakkad revved up was when the now most popular Congress leader from Kerala-Shashi Tharoor decided to contest to the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat on a Congress ticket in 2009 and prior to that veteran CPI-M politburo member Prakash Karat also hails from Palakkad.
So for the time, Vadakkenchery will bask in glory and only time will tell if the son of the soil will be successful in getting the Republican Party’s nomination and until then for sure the sleepy little town will have sleepless nights.
