Rachel Thomas, the University Gold Medalist, and the First Indian Woman Skydiver.

Rachel Thomas, the University Gold Medalist, and the First Indian Woman Skydiver.

Rachel Thomas, the University Gold medalist in literature will feature as the pioneer women who broke the glass ceiling of Aero sports in India, and also on the global map. She aced it with exceptional success, perfection, and ease. A former employee of Indian Railways, in 1987 she became the first Indian woman to compete for India in a skydiving competition, and then had the record of being the first Indian female to skydive over the North Pole in 2002, and hoisted the tri-colour flag of ‘150-years of Indian Railways’ at the North Pole. During her career, she made 650 sky jumps in 18 countries since her first jump in 1979.

Born on 9th August 1955, Thomas as a child always wanted to fly, but being an air hostess in the ’70s was not exactly she wanted. Rather she decided to do the real thing… fly in the sky, literally! She graduated from Agra University, with a Gold Medal in Literature. She then did her Bachelor in Education from Agra with a first division, and taught at St. George’s School Agra for several years before she joined the Indian Railways. The school teacher from Agra decided to take up Skydiving on a whim at a party one evening. At the age of 24, she joined the first course for civilians in April 1979, run by the Army Adventure Foundation. She was then a civilian mother of two children, when she achieved this feat. From there onwards there was no looking back and nor was anything beyond her reach.

Rachel Thomas, the first woman skydiver from India was also the first international woman skydiver judge from India. In her crown, she holds the record of skydiving over the North Pole in 2002, and also hoisted the flag of ‘150-years of Indian Railways’ at the North Pole. That was an ice desert at minus 55 degree Celsius. She was wearing six layers of clothes and going to plunge 8000 feet. For her, it was an amazing feeling. “In fact, I was not supposed to spend a lot of time at the North Pole. I was just supposed to go in, perform the jumps and come back. But, as luck would have it, the moment we landed on the North Pole we got caught in a blizzard for four days. We were at the North Pole for a total of six days. It was quite scary, but an unforgettable experience”.

So, Rachel took skydiving lessons at the Indian Skydiving Federation, Agra and later went on to do an advanced course from the Raeforts Institute in North Carolina, USA. In 1979, she jumped out of an aircraft to become India’s first civilian women skydiver.

Nervous Starter
“Once I was outfitted I headed toward the door and was told to step into the jump bar, hold on to the wing strut (the metallic bar which holds the wings to the aircraft’s body). I had to wait for the signal when the pilot would cut back on the throttle and minimise turbulence. I was scared out of my wits. I was so nervous that my hands were sweating. I slipped and accidentally opened my parachute.”

From her first jump on Taj Mahal, Agra in 1979, Rachel had a long journey and has over 650 jumps to her credit. But, ask her to recall her first tryst with skydiving and she still gets jitters. Says she “when I had to jump out of the Bever aircraft I just would not let go. I literally had to be pushed out by the instructor.”

The third time Rachel attempted to skydive, she again hung on to the strut and refused to let go. “My instructor, a French lady, had to lean out and push me. If the parachute had opened automatically and hit the aircraft, there could have been a dreadful accident and everyone could have died.”

The distressing incident didn’t end there. The instructor grounded Rachel and it was only after a lot of pleading that her teacher decided to give her another chance. This time around, Rachel mentally worked on her fear factor and dived like a pro. She questioned every norm and entered herself in competitions, representing India in the first World Championships at Seoul in 1987 at the age of 37. At that time, she had only 191 skydiving jump experience to her credit. Something that was perceived as too risky.

From being a Competitor, to a qualified Judge and a Delegate in Skydiving, Rachel has achieved it all, and thanks the Armed forces, the Indian Railways and her family who supported in her professional challenges specially for the opportunity to hoist the Indian tri-colour flag on the North Pole on 20th April 2002. She has been awarded the Padma Shree in the year 2005 and the National Adventure Award in 1994, which is at par with the Arjuna Award.

In 1992 Rachel received the Air Chief’s Commendation, Railway Minister’s Award in 1993 and the Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini Award in 1995. She is the first Indian to receive the National Adventure Award in 1994 that is on a par with the Arjuna Award. She was awarded People of the Year – Limca Book, 2003,

A few of her other important credits are:
Year 2000: “Operation Royal Salute” with the Jordian Special Forces in memory of the Late King Hussein of Jordan and the Marine Veteran Jumpers. Thomas also jumped with the Prince of Jordan. H.E Prince Hamzab bin Hussein.
Year 2000: Air-Show-2000, organized by the Aero Club of India, at Safderjung Airport.
Year 2001: Organized the First Friendship Jump for war Veterans. The Parachute Brigade was celebrating the 60th Raising Day on the occasion. Over 20 jumpers from 5 countries took part.
Year 2002: Honored by the President of Macedonia H.E. Boris Trajkovski, after her North Pole jump.

Then as a Judge:
Year 1992: She trained as a judge at the 21st World Parachuting Championship at Triben, Austria. She was India’s First Accuracy qualified FAI Judge.
Year 1994: Judged the 22nd World Parachuting Championship at Chengdu, China.
Year 1995: Judged the 3rd Open European Parachuting Championship at Efes, Turkey.

A senior publicity officer at Northern Railways, Rachel knows the downside of the sport as well. Like many skydiving enthusiasts she too has had one near-fatal experience. The brush with death came in Turkey in 1987. She says: “Death can occur any time, why be scared of it. So I took these incidents as a challenge and became even more determined.” Jumping off the aircraft thousands of feet above the ground, and being alone in the sky… what is the feeling like? “Unbelievable feeling. The air hitting your face as you come down is fantastic. One has to do it to understand what I am talking”.

The other moment she cherishes is jumping inside the Olympic Stadium in Seoul, Korea. She says, ”there was this competition in 1987, one year before the Olympics, to check out if sky-divers could land inside the Olympic Stadium. And, I participated ”Landing inside the Olympic Stadium in Seoul was an exhilarating experience but she wants to go on and wishes to jump on the South Pole in the near future.”

Rachel was preparing for a competition to be held in Indonesia. She had injured her shin the previous evening but was still going to attempt a practice jump from 3000 feet. When she opened her chute, she crouched to protect her shin but accidentally hit the button that opened the reserve chute. “In such a situation, the rule book says that the reserve goes between legs but I didn’t want to injure my shin further. In that split second I decided to cut away my main parachute. That was a wrong decision. Because of the jerk, the reserve chute was pulled towards my main parachute and both got entangled. That’s when I said my prayers.” Luckily for her, she landed in a field and suffered only minor injuries. Had she landed on concrete she might have been paralysed forever.

North Pole Dive:
Her most memorable jump was at the North Pole at minus 55 degree Celsius and has got the Sun for all the 24 hours. Rachel was wearing six layers of clothes and going to plunge 8000 feet. “It was my most adrenalin-pumping attempt ever. I wanted to revel in the beauty of what I was seeing and the bliss and the sheer high of what I was doing that I even removed the sunglasses that were used for protecting my eyes from the sun’s reflected glare on the snow,” she reminiscences.

Today Rachel is the proud possessor of all the four licences-A, B, C and D. Licence A is awarded after 10 free falls. Licence B after a diver masters the manoeuvring techniques. A formation in the air qualifies a diver for licence C and Licence D is given to those who are ready to become instructors in skydiving.

Today at 70 she is a grandmother of three grand daughters, and a role model for women and girls on how to break glass ceilings, how to define success and how to be limitless. Her’s is a journey of grit, determination and courage. A truly inspiring story for all.

She is married to Thomas, an Indian Army officer and the family lives in Vasant Kunj, New Delhi The couple has two children, a son, Dennis, and a daughter, Annie who is a Femina Miss India winner in 1998

No Recognition:

She still feels that skydiving is a neglected adventure sport. “Even mountaineers get a Padma Shri but skydiving does not get the required recognition. There is a lot of hard work, skill and mind control which goes into this sport,” says Rachel. She wants to plan one last exhilarating expedition to celebrate 25 years in the sport before she hangs up her chute for good.

Extensive travelling, reliable equipment, aircraft… Skydiving must be a very expensive proposition? Sitting in her Vasant Kunj house, Rachel says, indeed is a very expensive sport. For instance, I got a parachute worth Rs. 2 lakh. I had to choose between owning a car or a parachute. Besides, if you are staying in India, you have got to travel abroad frequently to be a part of the skydiving teams. But, when you look at it later on, it’s worth every penny that you have spent”. She also says that she has been lucky because her employers Indian Railways have supported her at every step, and that has helped her carry on with her passion.

Looking at her workplace, a sleepy, sarkari railway office, it is difficult to fathom why someone who looked death in the eye for fun could push files alongside for 20 years. But she says she was compelled by India’s ignorance in adventure sports. “Railways recognised me as a sportsperson at a time when very few in India understood this sport and no one wanted to back it. Only Railways made sure that I could go on,” says this poster girl of Railways’ sports patronage.
With Rachel retiring, the payroll of Indian Railway, the world’s biggest commercial utility employer looked a lot paler.

(Source: Wikipedia, The Hindustan Times, The Chandigarh Tribune)
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