Kamala Nandiwadal is one of the main characters on Never Have I Ever. She is Devi's older cousin from India who is getting her PhD from Caltech as a biologist. She is portrayed by Richa Moorjani.
Personality[]
Kamala is generally sweet and kind. For example, on Devi's first day of sophomore year, she goes out of her way to pack her cousin a lunch. She is depicted as intelligent and ambitious. She is passionate about science and demonstrates her enthusiasm about a breakthrough in her research program.
While she may have grown up in India and be more traditionally “Indian” than Devi, Kamala is shown to have some leaning toward Western ideals. She is torn between the duty to her family to follow through on an arranged marriage or choosing her own path. Due to Kamala not being more traditional, Nalini has to help her through the video chat with her fiancé’s parents so she can appear as a suitable choice for a bride.
Physical Appearance[]
Kamala is a young Indian woman with long, wavy, dark brown hair and brown eyes. She is seen as extremely beautiful and has made Devi jealous countless times. She usually wears blouses and button downed shirts along with jeans and dress pants. She also wears heels and flats. In the lab, she usually wears a white lab coat over her clothes and for traditional events and Hindu holidays such as Ganesh Puja and Navaratri, she usually wears a sari, bindi, chooriyan, and other such statement jewelry.
Biography[]
History[]
Kamala used to live with her parents and three sisters before moving in with Devi, Nalini, and Nirmala to pursue her career.
Throughout the Series[]
Season 1[]
Throughout the first season, Kamala is trying her best to navigate through her relationships and freedom with others, through her boyfriend Steve to make a strong attempt to help her escape her fate of having an arranged marriage witha man she has never met. Throughout this season, she eventually realizes that she doesn't want to be married to anybody at the moment, she just wants to live on her own terms.
After finding out that the person she was supposed to marry, Prashant, was a kind man who genuinely cared about her, she breaks up with Steve, as she realized that even though he was a good first boyfriend, she was over him. Hence, after a while she decides to date Prashant, though she didn't want to marry him, wanting to take her time. When Devi leaves her home, she constantly tried to get her cousin back by attempting to console her, so she comes back to the house, caring for her cousin a lot.
Season 2[]
Working under Evan Safstrom[]
Throughout this season, Kamala is attempting to figure out her life, putting aside all of the chaos she had gone through before. While dating Prashant, she starts her internship at what was supposed to be the happiest place of her life. However, she gets stuck with a misogynistic boss Evan who believes women should only clean beakers.
Devi continuously tries to taper Kamala off from Evan's bad behavior, but she fails to do so owing to Kamala's belief in working things out the way they are. Furthermore, her boyfriend Prashant tells her to put her chin down but keep her chin up in order to avoid trouble, telling her to try and impress Evan in order to get more privileges.
This advice turns out to be terrible as Kamala is forced to be put under demeaning positions which constantly make her feel uncomfortable. Further, after all her hard work, a research article based on all of her research is having all of her credit given to Evan, along with rest of the boys who do nothing for her except for Setseg, her good friend.
Breaking Free[]
Eventually, Devi gives her the much-needed courage that she needs to stand up to Evan's misogynistic and borderline racist behavior with Kamala telling him she no longer cares as her next rotation is with a female doctor.
Running away from the Family Dinner[]
Kamala goes to meet Manish
After a while of dating Prashant, Kamala realizes that she doesn't like Prashant as much as she thought she might after hearing his misogynistic advice and how he wanted to quickly propose to her without asking her before, which immediately unsettles her.
Hence, in order to calm herself down she runs away to the Winter Dance to meet Manish, Devi's English teacher who seemed to take an instant liking to Kamala when he meets her, even inviting her to the faculty karaoke night.
Season 3[]
Breaking up with Prashant[]
After Kamala's departure from Prashant's engagement dinner, they decide to break up. Nirmala hosts a party to find a new fiancé for Kamala.
Dating Manish[]
Kamala decides to start dating Manish instead, but her grandmother doesn't approve of the relationship. Kamala tries to fix this by inviting Manish to the household's holiday festivities, much to Nirmala's annoyance.
Kamala deduces that Nirmala will never respect her choice to date whom she wants. She decides to move into her own apartment.
Season 4[]
Suspicion of Len[]
Kamala starts to suspect that Paati's boyfriend, Len, may be trying to steal money from her. She tries to prove it but is proven wrong. She ends up supporting their relationship and even dances at their wedding.
Job Offer[]
Kamala faces a dilemma when she receives a job offer in Baltimore from her advisor, Dr. Logan. However, she declines the offer in order to stay and protect Devi, Paati, and Nirmala. Eventually, she realizes she should take the offer. She accepts and moves to Baltimore with her boyfriend.
Relationships[]
Family[]
Devi Vishwakumar[]
Kamala has a close relationship with her cousin Devi, as shown by how she cares a lot about her, and calls Devi her favorite cousin. The two are close despite how at times Devi tries to make Kamala look ugly because of her own jealousy.
Devi used to be in constant admiration of Kamala - believing she was perfect, eventually realizing Kamala is just as flawed as everyone else. This is especially apparent when Devi starts to see how Kamala isn't the perfect Indian girl that she seems after finding out about her boyfriend at the time, Steve. This slowly helps the cousins understand each other better and develop a mutual respect for each other. Whereas Kamala respects Devi for her bluntness, honesty, and her unique perspectives on certain things that she could have never thought of on her own. Devi has shown to become an inspiration for Kamala, as shown by how she grows into her own person through her cousin's advice, which allowed her to feel more about herself and take a stand for her own respect when she was getting belittled by others, such as her colleagues working in her lab.
A prevalent point in their relationship is that Kamala constantly tries to comfort Devi and be a role model for her. For example, she makes lunch for her to make her feel better on her first day of sophomore year, picking her up from school, her attempts to make Devi reunite with her mother, saving Devi from her mother a lot of times, and how she saves her from Ben and Aneesa's awkward romance.
Romances[]
Steve[]
In the first season, Kamala is attempting her best to explore through her relationships and freedom with others, through her boyfriend Steve making a strong attempt to escape her fate of having an arranged marriage with a man she has never met. Throughout this season, she eventually realizes that she doesn't want to be married to anybody at the time, she just wants to live at her own terms. After finding out that the person she was supposed to marry named Prashant was a kind man who genuinely cared about her she broke up with Steve as she realized even though he was a good first boyfriend, and they had a lot of good memories together, she was now over him. Hence, after a while she decided to data Prashant, though she didn't want to marry him wanting to take her time.
Prashant[]
Kamala and Prashant had an honest relationship with each other, being willing to support one another whenever possible. However, after a while of successful dating Kamala realizes that she doesn't like Prashant as much as she thought she might after hearing his misogynic advice and how he wanted to quickly propose to her without asking her before. She tries to win him back after running out on dinner with his family, only in speaking with him to realize she is not ready for marriage with anyone yet.
Manish Kulkarni[]
Kamala is seen flirting with Manish, Devi's English teacher, and he invites her to the faculty karaoke night. She accepts this invitation when she sneaks out of dinner with Prashant's family. The two become good friends and later an official couple much to Pati's initial dismay. Pati finally comes to terms with their relationship seeing the way Manish protected Devi after her cheating attempt in the Debate tournament and saying she'll accept the couple if Manish agrees to learn more about his own culture and heritage from her.
Appearances[]
Season 1[] |
Season 2[] |
Season 3[] |
Season 4[] |
Trivia[]
- She moved in with Devi and Nalini after Mohan died.
- She binge-watched episodes of Riverdale for sixteen hours.
- She got back with Steve after looking at fanfiction of Jughead and Harry Potter kissing.
- Her favorite show is Jimmy Kimmel Live!
- Her favorite person on the show is Guillermo.
- She has three unnamed sisters.
- She is a Hindu, like the rest of Devi's family.