I wanted to be an Airline Pilot since a very young age. In the late 1970s, I started gliding lessons after being refused admission to the Delhi Flying Club, as I was only 15 years old. One day while speaking to my neighbor, an Airline Pilot, he suggested I meet his friend and colleague, India's first Commercial female Pilot, Ms. Prem Mathur, who lived close by in New Delhi. I often rode my bicycle to her home, and she would regale me with stories of her flying days at Allahabad and Deccan Airways, always mesmerizing me. After that, I was introduced to Indian Airlines' first woman Aircraft Maintenance Engineer, Miss Bhuvan Gupta, and also to Capt. Saudamini Deshmukh, who had recently joined Indian Airlines as a Pilot. In 1965, a delegation of American women pilots, led by Isabelle Mcrae of ElCajon Va...