Delhiwale: Kamala and Kamala and Kamalas

Delhi's place names have deep roots, like Kamala Market named after Kamala Nehru. Kamala Harris might want to visit if she becomes US president.

“You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?”

Further digging into the Delhi-specific onomatology of “Kamala” takes you to the revelation that the capital has over 60 institutions, landmarks and places named after the Nehru-Gandhi family that gave India three prime ministers. (HT Photo)

Somebody famous famously asked this sometime last year. She immediately went on to answer the question herself—“You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”

This is particularly true in the case of Delhi’s place names. The names of Delhi localities didn’t just drop from the sky: each of them has a back-story. Accidentally, quite a few places in our city bear the first name of the woman quoted above. Another hint: she might become the first person of Indian origin to take oath as the president of the United States of America.

Readers in Kamla Nagar will get this instantly.

Irrespective of who wins the US elections later this year, Kamala Harris has already secured the support of a majority of her party’s delegates.

Meanwhile the aforementioned coconut tree question of hers has spawned a million memes. Kamala Harris was actually quoting her mother, the late Chennai-born Shyamala Gopalan who, before migrating to America (and marrying a Jamaican immigrant), was a graduate student at Delhi University’s Lady Irwin College.

But the many Kamalas of Delhi come from another Kamala. And both names come from kamal, the flower.

Further digging into the Delhi-specific onomatology of “Kamala” takes you to the revelation that the Capital has over 60 institutions, landmarks and places named after the Nehru-Gandhi family that gave India three prime ministers. 17 of these are named after Jawarhal Lal Nehru, 3 after his father Motilal, 13 after his daughter Indira Gandhi, 15 after his grandson Rajiv Gandhi, and 7 places are named after his wife named… you guess!

They are—Kamala Nehru College on August Kranti Marg, Kamala Nehru Ridge near Delhi University’s North Campus, Kamala Nehru Park near Old Subzi Mandi, Kamla Nagar in north Delhi, Kamala Nehru Marg in Kamla Nagar, Kamala Nehru Maternity Home in Sarai Rohilla, and Kamala Market at Ajmeri Gate.

The last has a clock tower, whose long-defunct clock got repaired just a month ago. Indeed, If Kamala Harris becomes America’s next president and makes a state visit to India, she ought to sight-see this market—not only because it shares her name, but because it is also truly presidential. Kamala Market was inaugurated by India’s first President Dr Rajendra Prasad.

That said, the market doesn’t have any coconut tree, but is ringed by very many luscious peepals, and one grand peepal has its leaves almost touching the clock tower.