Passionate researcher and teacher, Prof. Santhamma at 97 is confidence personified

97-year-old Prof. Santhamma continues teaching physics in India, as U.S. VP J.D. Vance's wife Usha Chilukuri visits.

Even as U.S. Vice-President J.D. Vance and his wife Usha Chilukuri arrived on a four-day visit to India on Monday, the flurry of activity that was witnessed at the residence of Ms. Usha’s grandmother, Chilukuri Santhamma, soon after Mr. Vance became the Republican nominee, is missing now.

Prof. Santhamma, 97, who had retired as a professor of physics from Andhra University more than three-and-a-half decades ago, continues to teach students of Centurion University, Vizianagaram, even today.

“Ms. Usha’s grandfather Rama Sastry, the youngest of the four Chilukuri brothers, was a native of Vadluru in West Godavari district. Chilukuri Subramanya Sastry, the husband of Ms. Santhamma, was the third brother, while Dr. Sharada is the daughter of the eldest of the four brothers. Rama Sastry’s son Radhakrishna had settled in the U.S.,” says Prof. Santhamma.

“I have not received any information from Ms. Usha on her visit to India. An official from the West Godavari Collector Office came to our flat and sought information about Ms. Usha and her relatives in India. I told him that her paternal aunt Ms. Sharada, who lives in Chennai, is the right person to contact in order to know more about her,” she tells The Hindu.

“In fact, I have come to know of her visit to India through the official. I saw Ms. Usha last time as a child when she visited India to meet Dr. Sharada, an anaesthetist in Chennai,” she adds.

I heard through our relatives that she liked my lectures on physics, Prof. Shantamma chuckles, and says: “I am not against Indians going abroad for higher studies or working for a short period there. They should return to India and serve their motherland.”

At 97, Prof. Santhamma is a woman of grit and determination. She had undergone knee replacement surgery for both her knees about two decades ago but that doesn’t deter her from continuing to teach. “I haven’t stopped working. I can do everything except climbing stairs. I am still going to college. I take classes for three hours a week and devote the remaining time to my research work,” she says, exuding confidence.