If she had won, Kamala Harris would have been the first woman to be elected President of the USA. With her Indian ancestory – her relatives still live in Thulasendrapuram village in Tamil Nadu – Kamala would have been the first person of Indian origin (PIO) to live in the main White House.
However, after her loss, that will not be possible for the next four years, at least.
However, in Usha Chilukuri, we will soon have a PIO staying in the White House – if not the main building but at least in a building that is part of the White House complex. Usha is the wife of JD Vance, Trump’s running mate and Vice President-elect.
There is an interesting backstory about Usha, which is being shared widely on some social media.
There’s a lore that apparently, in 1954, a tall gangling young lecturer, Rama Sastri, with a very marked Telugu lilt to his English, taught Physics at IIT Kharagpur. He was an excellent teacher, despite his accented English, and also served as the warden of Azad Hall.
A general body meeting of the hostel was held sometime late1954 to discuss burgeoning mess bills, which had climbed from rupees thirty to an astronomical forty rupees per month. Rama Sastri had to pacify the irate students.
He patiently explained the reasons for the increase ‘What to do, everythingu become costly, ricu, saltu, pepperu, vegetablesu all cost more.” The students were mesmerised by the accent’u and kept quiet. The meeting passed off peacefully. The anecdote became part of the early IIT student lore as a memorable event’u!
Rama Sastri was deputed for a year to MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, on a post doctoral fellowship. He came back a changed man. He had broad shoulders (filled out thanks to nourishing US food) and sported a marked American accent. His bold visage was unrecognizable from the figure he cut a year earlier.
He sounded totally American until he came to the deadly word ‘against’ when he reverted to his original Telugu persona. He pronounced it as ‘againistu,’ and everybody was relieved that the beloved Prof had become “normal”.
Rama Sastri left IIT Kharagpur in the early sixties and joined the Physics Department of the newly set up IIT Madras. He retired years later as a much loved Professor after an excellent career. IIT Madras now runs a student award in his memory.
Rama Sastri’s son, Krish graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree from IIT Madras in 1977 and later, in the 1980s, migrated to the US and is now a lecturer in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at San Diego State University.
His granddaughter Usha was born in USA, graduated from Yale, did a Master’s degree at Cambridge and later attended the Law School at Yale where she met and married a classmate.
Yes, the accomplished daughter of a Mechanical Engineer from IIT Madras and the granddaughter of a Physics teacher at IIT Kharagpur and IIT Madras is set to become the Second Lady of the USA!
As per protocol, the Vice President of the USA resides in Number One Observatory Circle, which is located inside the White House compund.
The Vice President also has a office in the West Wing while his or her staff maintain a set of offices in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB), located next to the West Wing on the White House premises. This office, called the Vice President’s Ceremonial Office, served as the Navy Secretary’s Office when the EEOB housed the State, Navy, and War Departments. Today, the Vice President uses the office for meetings and press interviews.
