Malkangiri: Her passion to travel the world drove Odia girl Anupriya Lakra to become the first female pilot from Malkangiri district.
Coming from a backward region infested by Maoists, Anupriya dedicates her success to her parents’ unending support and her sheer will power.
She is the daughter of Mariniyas Lakra, Odisha Police Constable and Jimaj Yashmin Lakra, a homemaker. She finished her matriculation from Malkangiri’s Deepti Convent School and her 12th from Similiguda’s Jivanjyoti Vidyalaya. She left her engineering mid-way to follow her passion of becoming a pilot.
Anupriya prepared for pilot entrance exams in Bhubaneswar. She was finally selected in 2012 at Pilot Training Institute at Bhubaneswar. Her dreams turned to reality when she was posted as a co-pilot as a private airlines company last month.
Anupriya still has a long way to go and further pilot studies would cost her upwards of Rs 15 lakh. Her parents, although ecstatic about their daughter’s achievement, remain a bit worried about the astronomical sum required to advance her studies.
PNN