Old City girl skips hurdles to soar high in the skies

Hyderabad: For Salva Fatima, a resident of Sultan Shahi, the flight to success was fraught with difficulties, criticism and frequent tests of patience. Now, four years and 201 flight hours later, the gritty 24-year-old has graduated perhaps as the first woman pilot from the Old City.

In her uniform with striped flaps and the headscarf, Salva is a healthy blend of the traditional and modern. Right from her school days Salva had harboured the dream of manning the controls of an aircraft and flying into the horizon. And with each passing year, she came closer to realising her dream only to be turned away by the hefty fee on the prospectus of various aviation colleges and it was only by sheer coincidence four years ago when she ran into a prominent philanthropist and editor of a regional newspaper at a college who offered to fund her education.
“I had read that there were only two Indian woman pilots in 2003. I always wanted to do something different. My parents had no choice but to tell me to stop my education after Intermediate due to financial constraints,” says Salva who graduated from the Andhra Pradesh Aviation Academy last week.
21/12/12 Syed Mohammed/Times of India