Flying Towards the Light of Ambition
[Applause]
if there’s
one thing surfing the clouds and looking
at the worlds from 35
000 feet for the last 17 years has
stopped me
is that no dream is too big to come true
no goal too difficult to achieve and no
challenge to gigantic to overcome
it’s all a state of mind
my dream of being a pilot started when i
was eight years old
stargazing into the skies wondering
if i could possibly fly one of those
big jumbo jets would look so tiny to me
i used to see lit up in the starry skies
with the strobe lights i would catch
myself
drifting away into my dreams
big dream of flying up into the skies
one day
and then i would bring myself to reality
the mother earth why would i let myself
dream such a big dream but in reality it
seemed just impossible for me
i knew that if i had to make that dream
come true i could not do it solo
and my parents my family the society
would never let me achieve it because it
was not
the expected norm despite it all
i knew i had a passion a passion for
flying
there was a fire inside of me i was
robust
resilient and focused
i used to tell myself it’s okay it’s
your dream
dream it stay target driven
on your goal and you will achieve it
just continue
to vision and work towards that
direction
do not ever give up this is
what my inner voice told me every single
day
every single second creating
and transforming me into another human
being
the person that i have become today but
i was in 11th grade
i chose science because it was a
prerequisite in order to become a pilot
academically i was always inclined but
i came from the moderate means
my background was extremely humble
my family couldn’t afford to send me to
a flying academy
my teacher is knowing my family’s
limitation financially discouraged me to
pursue flying
and asked me to switch to humanities
instead
so i can have a more meaningful learning
towards my domesticated life
but those tears and pain only fuels my
fire further
the day my teacher told me that i’d
never be able to make it
i took that as a challenge head-on
and said to myself that nothing could
hold me back
i repeated it over and over that nobody
had the power to dictate what i could
or could not do except
for myself it’s not over
until you for yourself say it’s over
another obstacle i faced was that i did
not speak english until my ninth grade
i knew that in order to become a pilot i
needed to be proficient in english
but i didn’t let that hold me back again
i was focused determined
i used to go to my neighbor’s house and
request them to switch on the english
channels on their newly bought
television set
i was able to learn english from the
star movies and the mtvs
of the new india as it was becoming you
could say i’m the true blue
mtv generation today i can speak english
fluently in two different accents
indian and american and the switch
between them is so reflexive for me i
almost don’t even realize it myself
and i think i’ve come to embrace it
quite beautifully so
i consider that as my adaptability today
which is great also if you ask me today
i’d be able to sketch the entire career
graph
of richard quest because i have
literally washed him all across
his career as time progressed
i slowly made my way towards my goal
everyone around me was so convinced that
i could not do it
every time someone told me to give up it
propels me even further
due to my gender profile people could
not fathom the fact
or the thought of a female being a part
of the aviation industry
let alone commanding a behemoth jet like
a boy in triple
seven worth 375 million dollars
my mother was stunned and started crying
when i told her i wanted to become a
pilot
my father wasn’t very convinced with my
career choice either
and in the hope of dissuading me from
the dream he urged me to apply for my
college post my 12th grade
well god’s grace i got into pretty much
every college that i applied to
after which my father encouraged me to
go and study in the hope that i would
well naturally let go of the obsession
of being a pilot
naturally i chose india’s premier
institute
the best college of india at that time
and even now to pursue my degree
as soon as i joined the college i broke
my piggy bank
and used all the money that i had
gathered over the years throughout my
childhood
that everybody had given me to enroll
myself in a good
aviation ground school there were two
ways
to achieve my aviation goal one was more
accessible and expensive
and the other ones was cheaper and more
complex
i chose to do it the hard way to save
money
but that meant more meticulous work from
my end
i used to travel endlessly to the other
side of delhi for my aviation studies
every single day
since i did not have any time during the
weekends
and they were also more classes over the
weekends i had to study
late every single night to complete my
college
science and aviation assignments even
under the street light sunday as there
was no electricity by the time i got
home
friends go out to parties and they never
quite understood
why i would not join them but nothing
around me mattered
except for my goal i could not deviate
because of my mental and financial
pressures i had to
prove my grit to my parents that i was
serious about my aviation dream
and that it was not something that i was
willing to
let go of but most importantly
i had to prove to myself
my ambition made me quite unpopular in
college
i was never understood people tend to
gravitate towards those who are
like-minded
and well i was very different but i bore
my imaginary blinkers
and the unacceptability never really
bothered me and most definitely
didn’t defuse let alone diminish that
fire burning within
throughout those three years of college
i think my parents felt bad watching me
run around the city to attend my classes
college which led them to have a change
off hard finally and they agreed to take
a loan
to give me my wings after three years
the grueling
years of graduation and aviation studies
together
it was actually like a dual degree
program with god’s grace i cleared my
exams with good grades
it was so exhilarating but little did i
know
that my biggest challenge was yet to
come when i came back from flying
the aviation sector was in a slump
and there were no jobs around waiting
for a job was difficult with all those
unpaid loans mounting on my head
i used to teach aviation to students for
free which helped me ensure that it
didn’t fall behind
my learning curve in the aviation
industry advancements
finally air india came with a few job
openings for pilots
it was the only international airline at
that time so i was almost amongst
3 000 applicants the entrance exam for
the job was incredibly tough and
undoubtedly the most
important one of my life so far
to this day every time i step into the
cockpit
i feel a sense of wonder and pride
reminiscing the journey that i’ve had
up until now and the gratitude for
having
to battle and come such a long way all
those challenges that stacked up
against me knocking off one stack of
challenge
at a time the aviation industry is a
demanding one
and i get many questions from people
asking if i ever felt
overburdened with my hectic schedule or
regret giving up
something being where i’m today
however in my opinion the very
description of sacrifice
is a very vague one i believe
that our life is like a pie
in which 20 percent is your work
25 is your family four percent
is all your loved and near ones
and 51 massive percent is
you if you can keep that 51
alive and vibrant then i think
you are sacrificing nothing at all
if you’re happy you radiate that
happiness
into the remaining 49 into the remaining
worlds around you
i am here today simply because i have
followed and
chased my dreams i chose my path
and i’m here to bear its consequences
the good
the bad the sad the ugly the amazing the
stupendous
and the breathtaking everything i have
done
i have done it on my terms and i have
risen to
every challenge and god’s grace
conquered all of them one by one
this is something that we can implement
in order to remind
ourselves that the key to happiness is
finding your own inner voice your own
inner joy choose your path
your challenge be happy be true
be driven do not deviate and work
towards it
tirelessly when the people at the hem of
the future
have this kind of mentality it can
significantly impact the future
of this planet this beautiful mother
earth that we live in
our worlds will benefit from a more
creative
content mindful future generation
eager to pursue climb and conquer the
mountain of challenges
after all remember the view
is always best from the top thank you