'Born to fly': Indian pilot blazes trail for women in aviation

India has the world's highest rate of women pilots, but when Zoya Agarwal said she dreamt of conquering the skies, her mother cried and told her to wait for a "suitable boy" to marry instead.

Agarwal has enjoyed an illustrious career since gaining her wings in 2004, including her inauguration last year — with an all-woman crew — of the longest non-stop Indian commercial flight.

After helming the 17-hour San Francisco to Bangalore route, Agarwal was feted on national television during India's Republic Day celebrations, and later became a spokesperson for the UN agency for women.

Her achievements are as impressive as they once seemed unlikely. When she settled on her dream, she had no role models in her network, and no sense that women even had access to a career in the flight deck.

"I didn't even have the right to such a crazy thought as that of becoming a pilot," she tells AFP at her family's home outside New Delhi, a few hours before her departure to New York.

"I was born in an era where the girls in India were expected to get married, have children and look after their families," she adds.

"And I was not there to do any of those things. I always wanted to spread my wings and fly away."

It took years for Agarwal to persuade her "very, very conservative" parents that she wanted to pursue a life beyond the horizons of an arranged marriage to "a suitable boy".

"My mum cried the first time I told her I wanted to be a pilot," Agarwal says.

"She wondered, 'why did God give us a dysfunctional daughter?' "

Agarwal had to pay for her university studies using her meagre savings, gifted to her on festive occasions throughout her childhood, and stored in a piggy bank in her bedroom.

At night she did her homework on the roadside, under the light of street lamps, because frequent power cuts left her family's home in the darkness.

She still managed to top her classes, and her parents, impressed by her determination after years of trying to dissuade her, surprised her by agreeing to pay for her flight training.

Agarwal — who sports a tattoo with the words 'Born to Fly' on her shoulder blade — was one of a "small handful" of women pilots when she began flying with Air India, the national carrier.

She felt an additional burden to succeed, not just for herself but those that would come after her.

"I always made sure that I [was] working twice as hard ... because I knew this was paving the way for the future of women in aviation in India," she explained.