In August, when Kamala Harris accepted her nomination to be Joe Biden's running mate, she briefly turned to Tamil to describe the various people who hold her up in life.

"Family," she said," is my uncles, my aunts, and my chitthis."

That one word, 'chitthis,' literally meaning one's mother's younger sister, or aunt, caught the attention of millions of viewers here and abroad. Among them, Indira Rajan and her fellow Westchester resident, Shoba Viswanathan, who are native Tamil speakers from India and were so taken by Harris' speech that they jumped on the phone the next morning.

"I said, 'Hey, let's start something,'" said Rajan. "And Chitthi Brigade was born."