People
Beant Kaur: Pioneer Air Pilot
AMRITA SETHI
BEANT KAUR April 9, 1917 - May 13. 2012
The first woman on the sub-continent to hold a private pilot licence (PPL) passed away on Sunday, May 13, 2012.
Beant Kaur, widow of Air Vice Marshal Harjinder Singh, was 95.
Born on April 9, 1917 in Lyallpur district of Punjab (now in Pakistan), Beant Kaur did her matriculation from Khalsa College, Lyallpur. In 1971, her husband died of a heart attack.
It was after her marriage with the Air Force officer that she developed an interest in flying and obtained the PPL from a flying club in Kanpur. Though she did not fly as the main pilot, she accompanied her husband in the four-seater plane owned by them. According to one of her relatives, she had around 70 hours of flying as the assistant pilot.
Though Beant Kaur was only a matriculate, her husband’s encouragement coupled with her passion for flying led her to getting the PPL. Both husband and wife would fly almost every day.
After her husband retired in 1964, they shifted from Kanpur to Chandigarh and settled down in Sector 3.
In Chandigarh, Harjinder Singh started working as a technical adviser to the Punjab and Haryana governments on a token annual salary of Rs 1. It was here that Beant Kaur fulfilled her desire of flying and used to fly almost every morning. She also inspired her sister, Satwant Kaur, who followed in her footsteps and got the PPL.
Major Narinder Singh Dhillon (retd), a relative of Beant Kaur, said, “She had been living with us for the past six years ... Her sister died in March 2006 and since then she had not been keeping well."
[Courtesy: Hindustan Times]
May 15, 2012
Conversation about this article
1: Baldev Singh (Bradford, United Kingdom), May 15, 2012, 5:40 PM.
A woman worth emulating.
2: Sangat Singh (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), May 15, 2012, 11:11 PM.
Given the right opportunities, any woman can do extraordinary things ... is the message of Beant Kaur's life. Even the sky is no limit. What an inspiring story! Guru Nanak gave total equality to women. It is up to us Sikhs - men and women - to honour his gift. Certainly, Beant Kaur lived up to her name - "Beant" = no limits!
3: Inderjit Singh (Chandigarh, Punjab), May 17, 2012, 3:15 AM.
We called her Bhen ji Beant. She and her sister were our neighbours. They had a terrible time when their house was forcibly occupied by a vulture-like relative who had apparently concocted a false will. Bhen ji Beant was such a lovely person and had so many memories, including a photograph with Pandit Nehru when he visited them to congratulate Beant Bhen ji on her getting her PPL. We are saddened to hear of her passing away.