In a sari, she earned her wings

It was extraordinary… people from different states began to claim me as one of their own." Those are the words of Sarla Thukral, who, on an unassuming afternoon in 1936, decided to pair her plain cotton sari with a flight helmet. She sat in the cockpit of a de Havilland DH.60 Moth, and the rest, as they say, is history.

By “wo-manning" the British two-seater aircraft for a quick flight, Thukral opened the doors for several women that would come after. Believed to be the first Indian woman to have flown an aircraft solo, the New Delhi-born was a go-getter. At the time of her historic 1936 flight, she was just a 21-year-old with big dreams. Her love for aviation stemmed from her marriage to PD Sharma, who came from a family with as many as nine pilots. Her keen interest in the field, at the time a domain of men, did not go unnoticed.

Sharma, who himself was the first Indian pilot to get an airmail licence, encouraged his wife to take flying lessons. It wasn’t smooth sailing. If not for the technicalities of flying a mechanical beast, the odd reprimand at not wearing her “chunni" during flights would get to Thukral. She, however, took things in her stride and did not stop even after achieving the long-awaited dream of flying an aircraft. She continued to train for a licence of her own in Lahore, balancing it with parenthood as a young mother. The hours of toil put in at the Lahore Flying Club soon came to fruition. After achieving an ‘A’ licence on completing 1,000 hours of flying time, she was headed for another first. A ‘B’ licence would have allowed Thukral to fly commercial planes, but tragedy struck. The untimely demise of her husband in a plane crash, followed by the breakout of World War II, halted her progress. Civil aviation training was no longer accessible, and when the Jodhpur Club, where she was receiving her training, shut down, Thukral was forced to give up flying.

Her perseverance, and sense of curiosity and eagerness to learn and try new things made her a jack of all trades. In an interview with The Tribune, Thukral had said, “I believe in doing things with my own hands. I don’t waste time… Every morning I wake up and chart out my plans. If there is plenty of work I feel very happy, otherwise I feel a precious day has been wasted." Perhaps that was why she was never scared to start from scratch. A widowed mother at 24, Thukral decided to build a second career for herself. She enrolled at Lahore’s then Mayo School of Arts and painted canvases and designed jewellery for a career before anyone knew it. Her parents had her remarried to PP Thukral. The marriage took her to Delhi after the Partition, and that’s where she rebuilt her career.

Thukral, who breathed her last on this day in 2008, lived her life on her own terms, and by doing so, paved the path for all the women who would come after.

Vedant Chandel

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