"I always wanted to become a pilot, from my childhood," Divya tells CNN Travel. "I didn't have anybody around who knew about piloting at that time. I had no guidance [...] I just wanted to fly."
Divya was fueled by her passion and determined to succeed. She looked for people who might point her in the right direction. Eventually she was sent an advertisement for flying school by a friend and she applied at the age of 17.
"I got selected," she recalls -- but this marked the beginning of a steep learning curve.
Many of Divya's new coursemates had flying experience -- or family who worked in the aviation industry.
For Divya, it was all brand new.
"I had no clue about any aircraft, technology, nothing," she says. "I'd never had any flying background or anybody to guide me, the whole subject was very new to me."
Determination to succeed
On top of this, Divya found there were cultural differences to overcome.
She hails from Vijayawada, a small city in the southeastern part of India. Arriving in Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in India, was a shock.
"I had issues with the language and cultural changes, even the way I would dress was different because I came from a smaller city," Divya says. "The others were from good cities and had gone to good schools and colleges [...] I had language barriers, I had cultural barriers."
It was tough, Divya recalls, but she had a strong work ethic and was committed to succeeding.
"We all have some success stories and failures -- but we have to focus on what we need and to keep learning," she says. "I wanted to become a pilot, that's what I wanted to do. So even though I was not doing OK initially, I was very determined to just do it."
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