Flying high: Ajmeera Bobby

Ajmeera Bobby, daughter of a retired teacher, has become the first woman from Banjara tribe to become a commercial pilot. She has successfully completed the difficult training module of commercial pilot licence in the US and also pursued another course related to pilot training from Jakarta, Indonesia. She is not only the first woman from the tribal community to become the pilot in the State, now she holds the record of becoming the first tribal woman pilot in the country.

Her first stint with aviation happened when her aunt (her father’s foster sister) visited India from Dubai. “After my Class X my aunt from Dubai visited us and we went to pick her up from the Begumpet airport. At that moment, after seeing the aeroplanes, I was determined to enter the aviation sector because neither my family members nor friends ever ventured into it,” she recalls. Like any other parents, Ajmeera Bobby’s parents too persuaded her to either become an engineer or a doctor.
“My parents relocated from Dandepally to Mancherial and they enrolled my younger brother and me in Carmel Convent High School. I excelled in studies. After my Class X, my parents pursued me to take up BiPC or MPC so that I can either become a doctor or and an engineer.
12/07/18 Askari Jaffer/Hans India