Thread by @sheshapatangi1

For the integration of states, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had to travel across the country.

Much to his surprise , a young girl in her early 20s from Bangalore was often one of the pilots for his flights and soon became his close friend.

She would go into history as the first

Indian lady pilot of independent India.

The life story of #UshaSundaram is divided into 2...
One as an expert Pilot & another as a compassionate mother for animals.

Will briefly explore both in this thread 🧵.

The year was 1946 when couple Usha Sundaram and V Sundaram

arrived in Bangalore and began their married life in the Garden city. They lived in a small bungalow on St Marks Road. A qualified pilot, Sundaram joined as the Director of Civil Aviation for the princely State of Mysore and in a few years, also became the principal of the

Government Flying Training School (GFTS) in Jakkur. The school was established in 1948.

Usha was his co-pilot thus making her the first woman to enter the cockpit on an all Indian flying crew based out of Bangalore then.

V Sundaram had been a pilot since the age of 19,

Usha expressed her desire to fly shortly after they were married. When the duo set the world record in ‘51, she was only 22 years old.

During the partition and amidst a hostile environment, Usha daringly flew into Pakistan on a few occasions to rescue people stranded due to

widespread violence and brought them back safely to Indian soil on her plane.

“In 1947, she flew President Rajendra Prasad on his official trip from Madras to Cochin and back on a Dakota plane.

The first citizen of independent India was floored by her flying skills

and lauded her in the presence of senior dignitaries during the trip,”

In 1950, the then Government of Madras approached Sundaram to purchase a plane for the state. Following which Sundaram and Usha went to England by ship and purchased a brand new De Havilland Dove plane

which was an aviation marvel at that time. The following year, the couple piloted the plane from London via Paris, Karachi, Baghdad and Bombay, setting a world record for England to India flight in 27 hours on a piston-engined Dove.

The record still stands.

At a media interaction on December 13, 2001 at the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) in Bengaluru where she was honoured as India’s first woman pilot, Usha reminisced about the 27-hour flight from London and her first flying experience at the age of 22.

“There shouldn’t be gender bias in the field of aviation as women’s ability with aircraft is on par with men,” she said in her interview.
Pilot Usha took an early retirement from professional flying in 1952 to raise her three children in Bangalore and later moved to Chennai

to start the #BlueCross of India along with her son Chinny Krishna. She passed away on April 5, 2010 at the age of 86 leaving behind a legacy as one of India’s first woman pilots, a star lady captain, and definitely the first woman to fly in Bangalore.

Mrs. Sundaram spent her

entire lifetime helping animals.

In 1959, she, along with her husband, Captain Sundaram, and their children, started Blue Cross of India by rescuing animals in need and caring for them at their home. Soon their home was filled with all sorts of animals: cats, dogs, goats

and occasionally mongooses.

Blue Cross moved out of their home and became the first of the modern-style animal shelters in India. The kindness and compassion of Mrs. Sundaram spread very far afield, as the work that she and her husband (who passed away in May, 1997) began,

has been carried on by their son, Dr. S. Chinny Krishna, the Chairman of Blue Cross.

Long before any other similar program in the world, forty-five years ago, Blue Cross began, and continues today, their ABC (Animal Birth Control – TNR) program for community animals.

It is a successful, model, no-kill program that has resulted in the elimination of cases of rabies in the city of Chennai, as well as saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of dogs and cats.

It would be difficult to overstate the impact that Blue cross has had on

the global no-kill movement. The ABC program has been formally adopted into the national law of India and has been taken up by animal welfare groups in many countries.

After she passed away, her eyes were donated, following her wishes, to the Shankar Netrayala eye bank,

and two persons will be able to see again thanks to this gift.

Usha Sundaram was a pioneer in the field of animal welfare, and the love, kindness and compassion that she extended so selflessly to animals is carried on today by Blue Cross of India and by countless other

organizations in India and far beyond who’ve been inspired by the work that she and Captain Sundaram began so many years ago.

Thanks to @kidsdoc Sir for sending me this article 🙏🙏🙏

#Legends
#UshaSundaram
#VANDEMATARAM