As an eight-year-old girl, Zoya Agarwal didn’t want dolls or toys. She wanted telescopes, to reach the stars and watch them up close and personal. 'I was a little girl with relentless dreams. I wanted to touch the stars, and what easier way of doing that, than to become a pilot and fly airplanes? That’s how it all began. Who knew that it would be the start of such a wonderful adventure for me?'
But it hasn’t been a cakewalk for her. Coming from a conventional family, her parents were of a traditional mindset. She was expected to get married, have children and look after them. 'That’s it. That was supposed to be my life. My parents truly believed that would be the best for me. But then there was this inner voice of that eight-year-old Zoya which used to tell me that there was no word such as ‘impossible’. So long as you go ahead, dream it, work towards and finally do it. That’s the mantra I follow until today,' she says.
Now looking back at all her achievements, Agarwal believes that when you climb the wall of challenges and overcome those arduous tasks, the view from the other side is indeed amazing. 'I never thought of myself as a girl. I always thought of myself as a professional and I always worked hard towards attaining the skill set required to become a pilot. My airplane seat does not know if it is a girl or a boy who’s flying the plane. It is a skill – a pilot who is flying that airplane. I’ve always treated myself as an equal. Thankfully Air India gave me wonderful opportunities and treated me like a pilot, never like a girl,' she quips.
In 2013, Agarwal became the youngest woman pilot to fly a Boeing-777. Eight years later, on January 9, 2021, she commanded a historic and record-breaking flight over the North Pole on the world’s longest air route. 'It was one of the world’s longest flights. It was Air India’s longest flight and the longest by any Indian carrier,' she reminisces. 'We flew over the North Pole connecting the two diametrically opposite cities of Bengaluru and San Francisco, which are the two Silicon Valleys of India and the United States respectively. And the icing on the cake - we were an all-women’s team on board!'
Agarwal believes that this was the beacon of women empowerment, and feels ‘truly blessed’ to have been given the chance to command the flight. 'The government gave us the opportunity to launch this flight amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. This was a very challenging flight and for four women – four ‘Bharat ki Betis’ - to get this opportunity, it speaks a lot about how we treat our women pilots,' she adds.
India has the highest number of licensed pilots in the world, with 12.4 per cent of Indian pilots being women. This is at odds with the low global average of 5 per cent. 'We don’t have to say much. The numbers say it all,' says Agarwal. 'If you compare ratios, we are onwards and upwards. But I am not happy with this 12.4 per cent. I’m only going to be happy when its 50 per cent. That is the goal of UN Women as well, who I work closely with and represent, to empower our women and make the world more equitable, diverse and inclusive.'
Agarwal is passionate about an equal world for all children. 'When you have a child at home, you shouldn’t look upon them as a ‘boy’ or a ‘girl’. Just look at them as a child. That change has to come from all of us. We have to give our children the power to dream and not tell them what they can or cannot become based on their gender. It has to be an equal world. Dreams do not have a gender. That is the world I’m aiming for - where no woman gets paid lesser than her male counterpart,' she explains.
This August, the global spotlight shone on Agarwal for her achievements, as well as her efforts to push more girls and women into following their dreams. She became the only living thing to be featured in the prestigious SFO Aviation Museum in the US. A representative from the museum told news agency ANI, 'In addition to her remarkable career with Air India, including her record-breaking flight from SFO to Bengaluru in 2021 with an all-female crew, her positivity about the world and her commitment to helping other girls and women achieve their dreams is deeply inspiring. Being able to record and share Captain Agarwal`s personal history allows SFO Museum to preserve the excitement and the historic nature of her extraordinary career with current and future generations of aviation enthusiasts.'
Ask her about it and she brushes it off saying, 'I feel so blessed to be the first Indian female pilot to be featured over there. But I’m just a tiny drop in the ocean. I just hope that this ‘Bharat ki Beti’ can inspire the girls of today.'
To the readers of Her Circle she says, 'Chase your dreams independently for whatever you stand for and want to do. Not because of what your parents want or societal walls or what the world expects. If you can see me, you can be me. If I can chase my dreams, you can too!'