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Usha Vance shares joys of reading with mother in Mother's Day video
The episode highlighted family reading traditions and conversations on parenting, storytelling, and childhood memories.
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Malvika Choudhary - Mon, 11, May 2026
- 17:18 EDT
- 61
Usha Vance / X/ Usha Vance
Second Lady Usha Vance marked Mother’s Day with a special edition of “Storytime with the Second Lady,” featuring her Indian immigrant mother, Lakshmi Chilukuri.
Reading Rudyard Kipling’s classic children’s story “How the Camel Got His Hump,” Usha said, “Happy Mother’s Day to all! I enjoyed celebrating with my favorite storyteller: my mom, Lakshmi Chilukuri.”
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The Mother’s Day special was released as the sixth episode of the reading series, which was launched earlier this year as part of the Second Lady’s outreach focused on literacy and children’s reading.
During the episode, Vance reflected on her childhood reading habits and said her parents read to her every night when she was growing up. Introducing her mother, she described Chilukuri as “a wonderful mom and a great storyteller” who also teaches college students as a scientist.
Chilukuri, a biology professor and academic administrator at the University of California San Diego, spoke about reading fairy tales, Disney books, and classics such as “The Hobbit” and Kipling’s “Just So Stories” to her daughters.
“I read to you until you were almost 11 or 12, and by then we were reading ‘The Hobbit,’” Chilukuri said during the conversation.
The mother-daughter conversation during the episode also touched on parenting, family traditions, and the value of reading aloud to children.
The discussion also included memories of family trips to India, with Vance recalling seeing camels pulling carts in Rajasthan during her childhood.
Closing the episode, Vance encouraged families to spend time reading together on Mother’s Day. “I hope you get a chance to read some good books with your own mom or grandma,” she said. “Because when we read, we grow.”
Vance, the first Indian American Second Lady of the United States, has frequently spoken about the influence of her immigrant parents, both academics originally from Andhra Pradesh, India.
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