The Skydiving Sharmas earn their place in history

Becoming the first Indian family to go skydiving together has earned a Bahrain based Indian family their place in the Limca Book of World Records 2008, an Indian-based record book that represents the achievements of more than a billion Indians.

Major (retd) Vijay Kumar Sharma, his wife and two children did the tandem skydive from 15,000ft near Houston, Texas, US on July 23 2010 at the Skydive Spaceland. Mr Sharma, 60, is a retired major from the Indian Army and is now Al Mannai International Trading Company general manager. His wife Suman, 57, works as a teacher at the Al Noor International School. Their daughter Sonali Aggarwal, 34, stays with her businessman husband Sunil Aggarwal and their two children in New Delhi, India. Son Atul Mohan, 25, who studied at the Indian School and Birla Institute of Technology International Centre, Bahrain, currently works as a software engineer in Houston.

The family jumped at Skydive Spaceland, Texas during a visit to their son Atul.  Like many Indians abroad, Atul has tried skydiving and he arranged everything for his excited family at one of the top USPA drop zones. The family hopes to re-create the event at some point in the future, although it would be more convenient for them to use facilities based in India and they hope to see commercial civilian dropzones like skydive spaceland opening up in India before too much longer.  Mr Sharma divulged "It was the most amazing experience that a person can go through and yet not be able to describe in words. You feel like a stone while falling and nothing else matters. We never realised that we were creating a record. I contacted the Limca Book of World Records to know if what we had done was anything special at all" he said.

For more information about Tandem skydiving

For more information about the skydiving Sharmas