Google Doodle: Today Google is celebrating the 107th birthday of India’s first female pilot, designer, and entrepreneur Sarla Thukral (Sarla Thakral Birthday). Vrinda Zaveri has made this doodle after seeing her tribute. Thukral was the first Indian woman to fly an aircraft. Sarla was born on August 8, 1914, in Delhi, the capital of India. In just 16 years she was married to pilot PD Sharma. Taking inspiration from her husband PD Sharma, Sarla received training at the Jodhpur Flying Club.
Wearing a sari, 21-year-old Sarla flew a two-seater plane named Gypsy Moth in Lahore in 1936. Thakral created history when he stepped into the cockpit of a small two-winged aircraft.
At the young age of 21, under British rule, she took a pilot’s license as well as being the mother of a 4-year-old daughter. After getting this license, Sarla was also successful in getting an ‘A’ license after completing 1000 hours of flying. She stepped into the cockpit wearing a traditional sari, which sent a message to the world that flying in the sky was no longer the domain of men only.
In Sarla’s in-laws’ house, 9 people used to have experience of flying airplanes. Sarla’s husband PD Sharma was India’s first airmail pilot licensee, who flew Karachi to Lahore for the first time on this license. Captain PD Sharma died in a plane crash in 1939. Recalling her first flight experience, Sarla had told several times that her flying coach, fellow pilots, and none of her family had any objection to her flying.
