Brief reminiscence on Sarla Thakral, India’s first lady pilotFiled Under: Delhi Flying Club, India, Indians, Sarla Thakral
The British in 1929 opened Delhi Flying Club to Indians and not many joined the Club. One of the student was P.D. Sharma, Sarla’s husband. After he became a full fledged Pilot, Sharma and Sarla got married.Sarla was 16 at that time.
But instead of giving kitchen as endowment to his wife, as a normal Indian husband, he convinced her to join Flying Club. You are talking about 1936, when you were fictional about women becoming pilot, they don’t expect the women to go out the kitchen. I mean it is a men’s world all the time, there are husbands who do not like their wives even to drive their personal car, it was awe-inspiring on the side of Cap. Sharma who persuaded his wife to join the Aviation Flying Club—standing ovation to him.
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Sarla had taken only 9 hours of flying lessons, but she was successful in ingoing the cockpit of a Gypsy Moth and flew into the blue skies, and made a history as India’s first lady pilot in the year 1936. That’s why Sarla Thakral’s accomplishment had got no more analogs. There was no barricade for Sarla from accepting that unaccompanied flight. She is so dashing and courageous, at a time when the flying was like dream, flying in air was like phenomenon.
On that point comprised entirely a fistful of manly pilots in India. For women, of course aviating constituted ludicrous.” I used to hand over my chunni to my flying aide before I sat in the cockpit. One day Rai Bahadur Roop Chand who later went on to become the Indian ambassador to America, told my husband to scolded me and told me not to be such a be-sharam and that I should not take off my chunni while flying,” she says with an express amusement.
In those days she could take flying lessons for Rs. 30 an hour. ” Learning flying was cheap because not many wanted to risk their life. Sarla obtained her ‘A’ license when she accrued over 1000 hours of flying.
Sarla was now gearing up herself to apply for the group B license that would permit her to fly as a commercial pilot, but the destiny did not cooperate, the Jodhpur club closed down soon afterwards with the outbreak of World War ll.
To append supplementary catastrophe, she was widowed at the tender age of 24.Her husband died in a crash. She had a four year old daughter too. Her parents got her re-married. But her new husband too very cooperating and did not stand up in his wife’s way of evolution. He took his wives interests also in view.her previous husbands’ bereavement ruined her. She did not want to become a pilot any more. Sarla abandoned her plans to adapt a commercial pilot and divulged into various fields much in advanced at that time. She joined the Mayo School of Arts in Lahore. Along with paintings she also began designing clothes and costume jewelery.
She had also started textile printing and her sari prints were a frenzy with the designer mass and one of the clients was Vijaylaxmi Pandit.Sarla Thakral is 91 years old young lady still flying high in her life.
She had later shifted to Delhi and now she stay put in Bengali market, a place where only the privileged lives. She supplied her jewellery designs to several cottage industries for over 20 years.
Sarla was in recent times honoured for being the oldest yet the fittest person in her neighbourhood. She is 90+ now. Women of today should take the epitomize life of this prototypical lady who had a dynamism and energy other than the far side that of the kitchen and office and attending the cockpit flying high; I salute the first lady pilot.
Sarla Thakral is all the same flourishing and thriving till date. May God make her more hale and hearty and prosperous life, she is a superwoman indeed, because success is being able to spend your life your own way.
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- BestDesi Blog Admin
- 25 Jan 2008 11:26 PM
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