My lunch with Kamala's mom

Kamala Harris has energized previously dispirited Democrats as she hit the campaign trail this summer .

She was sharp, empathetic, self-assured, funny, highly polished but not too slick.

Her policies sounded like the future, too, progressive enough for her most liberal constituents but commonsense enough to appeal to moderates who also wanted to feel safe.

Dr. Shyamala Gopalan was raised in a progressive Brahmin family in southeast India in which everyone was expected to earn an advanced degree and have a high-achieving career in public service.

In 1958 , after graduating from college in Delhi at 19 , she headed to the University of California at Berkeley to earn her doctorate in nutrition and endocrinology.

She and her husband moved to predominantly Black neighborhoods in Berkeley and Oakland .

Dr. Shyamala Harris : "I love problems, because they’re an opportunity to fix something— there’s nothing more gratifying” Dr. Harris : “I’m not going to put on a Band-Aid when I don’t even know what the problem is. Because my time is worth a lot of money, and I'm putting that time into you, you got to understand how good I think you are!”.