September 30, 2006

My Driving Lessons

3 months back...............

Yippppppppppeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...................... Hurrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy................
:) :) :) :) :) :):) :) :) :) :) :):) :) :) :) :) :):) :) :) :) :) :):) :) :) :) :) :):) :) :) :) :) :):) :) :) :) :) :):) :) :) :) :) :)

I was all smiles. I had fought my first major case and won it :p. I finally was going to start car driving lessons. Phew, as much an exhilarating feeling it was, I knew the real daunting task was ahead.

Learning to ride/drive a vehicle had been on my wish lists for a really long time. The other being swimming. At home,I had always had to wait for dad to come to take us around or rely on the public transport. It used to be in the back of my mind that I should start learning as soon as I have a car at my disposal. I mean, what use was car driving if I didnt have my car to ram :p? So I used to keep waiting when my parents will join me in Bangalore or when I would have a car to drive. It took 5 long years.

What accelerated this desire and gave strength to shatter all my mothers' arguments was an incident in college. We had this Sports Day.(This was in Post graduation and the Sports day will be another entry)........... I had travelled to the venue in one of my friends' car. He was taking part in 1) The 100 m 2) The Relay 3) The Long Jump

He hurt his foot while finishing the 100m run and sprained it real bad. He was in pain and I knew he would not be able to drive. But we had no choice. He was the only one who could drive amongst us. I felt miserable the whole time he drove. He used to wince in pain, every time he had to apply the brakes. I never had felt so helpless.

That steeled my resolve to learn driving no matter what. And I went ahead and enrolled in the driving school.

I had to take up the Learners Test without which I could not start the lessons. Can u believe it- I flunked the test . I mean which dunce would fail an LL??? And that too after understanding what would be asked? But trust me, the questions were tricky. There was one- "If the driver drives in a way that accidents dont happen- Is he a) a safe driver
b) a professional driver
c) a safe and professional driver ?

I mean why ask these kinds of questions when they are irrelevant. I was so pissed and irritated with myself. To top it, my mom started associating it to bad luck which would stop only after my marriage......... Phew.............. What logic it held, I fail to comprehend.

Well, I cleared my LL next time and there started my "having to rise upto expectations".......... My friends said that "According to statistics, women were worst drivers".......... Yeah fat lot that information did to my confidence. I used to expect perfection in my learning lessons and come disappointed as some auto guy or car guy would have screamed some unintelligible words.

Then I said to myself, I was just proving what the statistics showed. I thought I wont expect to have a completely correct learning session, rather learn how I could better myself and correct my flaws. I started driving better. I drove my car all the way from work back home in peak traffic and late evening.

The strength of positive attitude :)

2 comments:

ANand said...

Nice experience. Driving is fun but driving in peak hrs simply sucks!! have u tried on Mysore highway, you can have fun there with gud roadway and zigzag roads. Its thrilling. You can aramse sped upto 120.

VasuDev Behere said...

Great to know that u learnt to drive finally. It would have been different if u actually took the car to the office daily we have missed many of ur musings!
Good that u learnt the car to use in emergencies and already did drive in the peak traffic!..
Positive attitude always helps. Keep going..
Next in ur to do list : is it a plane?