Sarla Thukral was born on 8 August 1914 in Amer, Rajasthan, India and married into aviation. Captain P. D. Sharma, whom she married when she was 16, came from a family which had nine pilots, and had been the first Indian to get his airmail pilot's licence.

The couple moved to Lahore and P. D. Sharma began flying the regular route to Karachi. He also encouraged his wife to take the family tradition forward – to become a pilot. Since he was too occupied with his airmail duties to give her flying lessons himself, his father – the owner of Himalyan airways -- enrolled Sarla in the local flying school.

She had a natural aptitude: after less than nine hours of training, her instructor considered her ready to fly solo. Sarla, aged 21 and wearing a sari, completed her first solo flight in a DH.60G Gipsy Moth She then completed 1000 hours of flying in the aircraft owned by the Lahore Flying Club to gain her “A” licence in 1936, becoming one of the first women in India to do so.

After her husband died in an air crash in 1939 Sarla continued with her flying goals and travelled to Jodhpur to train for her commercial pilot’s licence, hoping to make a career in aviation. However, on the outbreak of World War II, civil flight training was suspended. With a child to raise, and needing to earn her living, Sarla abandoned her plans to become a commercial pilot, returning to Lahore where she obtained a diploma in fine arts.

Sarla Thukral died in Delhi on 15 March 2008.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org