The Rediff US Special/Sonia Chopra

When other girls her age were playing with dolls and making mud rotis, Madhura Joshi was making paper planes with her eyes firmly fixed on the skies above.

"I can still remember watching planes at the airport taking off and landing and would imagine myself flying those aircraft one day," she says.

The odds were stacked heavily against her. To become an Indian woman commercial pilot in the United States took more than stardust in her eyes.

It took time, money, patience and perseverance.

But, finally, it all paid off.

Trained as a commercial pilot, Joshi, 26, has been a flight instructor at Aviation Atlanta for nine months now, and the experience has made her confident enough to start applying for positions in domestic airlines.

"Flying is euphoric," says the 5'4", 125lb woman. "It's a natural high. I never cease to be fascinated by it. I feel free and I feel like I can do anything. I have never felt that way with anything I have done... I want to fly because I want to start each day being excited about my job."

Given her background, her grasp of mechanics and physics is natural.

Born in Bombay, Madhuri moved to Nigeria with her parents Saroj and Avinash Joshi when she was just one year old. Her brother Mayoor was born there three year later.

In 1980, they moved to the US and settled in York, Pennsylvania, where her father, now 51, is a mechanical engineer with Svedala, a mining equipment manufacturer.

Her mother Saroj, also 51, worked for the same company until two years ago. She is now a flight attendant for Ryan International Airlines, charter flights service.

And when Prince Charming came along, he happened to be an engineer as well. After graduating from the University of Georgia with a degree in psychology four years ago, Madhura Joshi married Vibhav Bhargave, 28, and moved with him to Memphis, Tennessee, where he works for Federal Express as an industrial engineer.

But while she was content with her personal life, Joshi's desire to fly intensified.

"During my senior year at college, I had decided as a whim to take flying lessons. It was to be a casual hobby, but after only a few lessons I was so much in love with it that I knew I wanted to pursue a career in aviation," she says.

After her move to Memphis, Joshi began flying and training. But reality succeeded in grounding her, when it became clear that it was too expensive a hobby to carry on.

So she took a detour to her dream. She joined as a customer service representative at First Tennessee Bank and saved her salary. Ten months later, she had the money to complete her flying classes.

Her husband is her biggest supporter and admires her tenacity.

"I think what attracted me to Madhura in the first place was her desire to achieve beyond the 'normal' expectations of an Indian female. From the start she seemed to be different from other Indian girls that I met. She is down-to-earth and uncomplicated, which is a blessing for any spouse," says Bhargave.

"She has a fiery, competitive nature which, combined with her analytical thinking, makes her an exceptional pilot. I'm very happy that she has found a career which makes her feel content."

Three years ago, when the couple moved to Atlanta and Bhargave got a job with Delta Airlines, Joshi resumed her flying lessons at Aviation Atlanta and began working there as a dispatcher.

After completing her flying lessons, she was appointed flight instructor with the company at Dekalb-Peachtree Airport, one of the nation's busiest airports.

Instructors, colleagues and other pilots respect and admire Joshi's grit and ability. "When I first had the privilege of being Madhura's instructor, I found her piloting skills to be exceptional. Her dedication to learning has consistently been demonstrated by her knowledge and helpfulness to both student pilots and her fellow instructors," says David Schiff, chief pilot at Aviation Atlanta, who has instructed about 100 students in his twenty-five career.

"Senior management and the other chief instructors hold Ms Joshi in high esteem for her dependability and integrity. We are glad to have her as a colleague and friend," he adds.

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