“Do you think the truck driver knows theory? You will learn by pure practice” Probably these are the enlightening words that are responsible for me to be driving in Mumbai today.
I would have probably not ventured to learn to drive if I was not going to Australia; people told me if I did not learn to drive, I would not be able to move around. Taking this as a cue, I started, probably like most of us in India, by going to a driving school to learn to drive a four wheeler. It was a 2 weeks, 5 days a week, 30 minutes a day crash course in one of those Maruti 800 (I am sure you guessed right; there were no Santro's, Indica's then) which was not easy to handle. I figured out that I need to call my driving teacher “Master” and butter him with the hope that he would teach me a trick or two or atleast not not say “you do not know how to drive”.
It was time for getting the license. Come at 1000 and you need to give a test. I am not too confident, having always driven in the comfort of not having full control on the break and the clutch, it was a different domain altogether. On the other hand it was acceptable that I confide in my driving teacher and say that I was not confident. Unprepared I am in the RTO. “You will need to drive for a couple of meters and then put the car in the reverse and park it” was mentioned and I wondered how I would I complete all the chapters.
Come 1100, 1200, 1300, 1400, 1500. No news of the test and lo the driving school person comes and say “Aap pass ho gaye”. Am confused. He says come and collect the driving license on a certain date. And here I am, licensed to kill (nay drive) without the skills. This is what a huge population does. Gives you a free license.
Probably there is a certain degree of honesty in all of us. I refuse to drive, what if I have the license. I pack my license and keep it safe.
A month in Brisbane, Australia. I start hunting for a car, feels it is good to have because public transport is not very great. I call up one of the driving schools and pick up an hours or learning. I proudly say that I have an Indian license assuming that I will be driving an automatic and the only thing that I have to do is make sure I keep on the road. The roads are anyway not that dense!
The car that comes for my first driving lesson is a geared vehicle! He says that I did not ask him particularly for a automatic, so end up paying for it without trying to expose my inability to change gears without assistance (when to change etc)!
Next time I make sure to ask for an automatic. I pick up 2 hours of classes at a time for a couple of time and shell out a decent amount of $'s. I pick up the nuances of driving in Brisbane, turn abouts, side parking and make sure I drive atleast once from home to work and work to home to get conversant with the route!
Purchased an automatic and drove for more than 30 months without a ticket.
Back in Mumbai. No car. Using public transport. Cool. Until “We should buy a car” come from a high pitched voice. I guess I am in trouble; so I say may be we can buy an automatic so that you can drive easily. “No way, what is the fun of an automatic, we need to have a geared vehicle. Further automatic is expensive” says the high pitched economist in the house. Only alternative is to buy a geared vehicle. But driving in Mumbai? Geared? Traffic? Bothers me.
I am not confident driving in Mumbai, especially geared vehicle I submit meekly. May be I will need to learn some theory I say. “Do you think the truck driver knows theory? You will learn by pure practice” Probably these are the enlightening words that are responsible for me to be driving in Mumbai today.
I take this literally. So the solution, take more driving classes. I pick up 10 hours of driving without wanting a license! A little more confident than earlier (but no better!) I drive first inside the cocoon of the campus always putting away the need to travel outside the campus (Secret: fueling on a Sunday morning when the roads are empty and a route identified so that there is no right turn!) by saying “where will we find parking”, “it is cheaper to take a taxi”, “we can alight right in front of the shop” until there was an invite from IITB campus. The majority in my house say we need to take our car. So that is the first outing.
“You crossed the signal, what is your name? Where is your license” during your first outing. I give my license and pick up a receipt for the fine. Not a good start. Then I get stuck on a slope in a dense traffic near IITB. Take a while to move out of the spot, after quite a bit of sweat, literally. Choose a very late time spot to get back home. Always wonder why there were not fewer gears? Why should the vehicle move backwards when you are in gear one. Why can not the gear be displayed somewhere so that one knows in which gear one was driving. Cursing the technology or the lack innovative idea to make things that were easier for me then.
That was 7.5 years ago.
Things have changed since then. Two reasons (a) Practice and (b) If a (not so educated) truck driver can drive a truck why can not you?
Written this in some other context.
Comments