Curiosity, culture, and a great deal of heart were the foundations of Vice President JD Vance and Usha Bala Chilukuri’s unforgettable love story.
A cordial welcome back to India
Usha Bala Chilukuri and JD Vance just returned from a four-day trip to India, where they were warmly received. However, Usha was the star of the show.
Usha, the daughter of Indian immigrants, received celebrity-level treatment when travelling through Delhi, Jaipur, and Agra.
Vance made a joke himself:
It turns out that she is somewhat famous in India. More so than her husband, in my opinion.
The pair combined sightseeing with emotional moments celebrating Usha’s heritage as they visited famous sites including the Akshardham Temple, the Amer Fort, and the magnificent Taj Mahal.
From classmates at Yale to soulmates
At Yale Law School, two radically different worlds collided and immediately clicked, sparking the beginning of their love affair.
Vance was the son of a struggling Appalachian family, and Usha, who grew up in a very traditional Indian-American home, assisted him in navigating the prestigious world of Ivy League academia.
Vance referred to Usha as his “spirit guide” in his best-selling autobiography, Hillbilly Elegy, naming her:
“A genetic anomaly—a confluence of all the good traits that a human being ought to possess.”
Over time, their friendship only grew stronger.
They united their faiths and customs into a single life together when they were married in an interfaith ceremony in Kentucky in 2014.
Indian dishes and cooking up love
Among their relationship’s most endearing aspects?
Vance became fully immersed in Usha’s culture, even learning how to prepare Indian food from her mother.
During her moving speech at the 2024 Republican National Convention, Usha said, “He’s a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy, but he adapted to my vegetarian diet and learnt to cook Indian food.”
Vance developed into an experimental home cook, incorporating flavours from Usha’s family cooking into their shared existence through everything from lamb recipes to chana masala.
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Vance gushed about Indian food in an open podcast interview with Joe Rogan, calling rice, paneer, and chickpeas “delicious” and making fun of lab-grown meats as “highly processed garbage” in comparison to authentic home-cooked meals.
A bond based on mutual respect and curiosity
For Vance, marrying Usha was about accepting all that she stood for, not simply about falling in love.
He acknowledges that her influence helped him grow closer to his family, his faith, and his appreciation of tradition and hard work.
From campaign speeches to foreign trips, their obvious chemistry demonstrates a bond based on sincerity, respect, and an open mind to one another’s worlds.
In Usha’s own words:
“He was a vital member of my family before I knew it, and I couldn’t imagine my life without him.”