Sheela Sam Ebenezer recalls the year when she touched the skies

Sheela Sam Ebenezer is on a high when she remembers that day in 1984 when she flew solo in New Delhi as the best female NCC cadet of the air wing in Kerala. “It was freezing and the icy winds did not help. Although many cadets could not even fly their glider, I managed to do that and landed safely. I stood third in the all-India competition,” recalls the 53-year-old, now a higher grade section officer in University of Calicut.

Always ready for adventure, Sheela was a cadet in the NCC as a student of Government College for Women when she was chosen to undergo training in flying at the Flying Club in the capital city.

“The then director of the NCC Brigadier Gourishanker brought down a trainer from Bengaluru to the city to train me in a Pushpak and then on a glider. After a while, Eugene Khan was posted in the city to teach flying. The training in the Pushpak helped me in my training to fly the glider,” she says.

Her classes used to start at 5.30 am and Sheela diligently attended the classes and soon she was selected for going solo on the glider. In between, she also gathered prizes for shooting, signals, best turn out and so on.

On December 26, 1983, Sheela made news by becoming the first woman in Kerala to fly a glider, as the 18-year-old flew up to a height of 600 metres above sea level. Finally, she won a place in the NCC contingent representing Kerala for the Republic Day in 1984.

She says the memories of that trip are indelible as she was able to meet the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and win awards on behalf of the Kerala contingent.

However, once her college days were over, Sheela had to battle the establishment to ensure that NCC cadets were given grace marks for admission to engineering and medicine. “While cadets from states such as Tamil Nadu and Karnataka were given grace marks and seats in professional colleges, I had to fight a long battle for that. My dream was to join the Air Force; but in those days, that was one dream that had to be grounded as women were not allowed in the ranks of the Air Force,” she says before signing off as her 10-month-daughter Aadya demands her attention .