Google has dedicated its homepage to celebrate 107th birth anniversary of India’s first women pilot, Sarla Thukral.
Sarla Thukral was India’s first lady to fly an aircraft. She earned an aviation pilot license at a young age of 21 in 1936 and flew a Gypsy Moth solo in a traditional saree.
Sarla was born in 1914 in Delhi and later shifted to Lahore. She got married at the age of 16 in a family which had nine pilots. She was encouraged by her husband, who was also a pilot and had been the first Indian to get his airmail pilot’s license, flying between Karachi and Lahore. Thukral also became the first woman in India to attain ‘A’ license, when she accumulated more than 1,000 hours of flying. She also tried to apply for her commercial pilot license, but World War II resulted into suspension of civil training.
She was also a successful businesswoman, painter and also used to designing clothes and costume jewellery.
Google is celebrating her 107th birth anniversary with a doodle, illustrated by the guest artist Vrinda Zaveri.
