Driving Yours Truly

It had been some time now that we've been planning to go for a car. In fact, I was all for a car even before going for the house. At least, in that case, my wife's (and my parents' and her parents') better sense prevailed, and we went for a house. It is one of the rare case where hindsight has been rather kind to me.

Anyway, now that we are firmly entrenched in our house, this fancy for a car again started gnawing at my mind. I was a little scared about bringing this up with Ranji, but surprisingly, she was all for it. I even made one Maruti salesperson come to my home for checking out the details. Unfortunately, one major speedbreaker for our car dreams was the fact that neither one of us knew head or tail about driving.

After hemming and hawing for some time, we both finally signed up for driving classes last week. We wanted to try on a Maruti Esteem but got a Santro instead. Being the man of the house, I decided to have the first go at it. The highly complicated mechanism of stamping the clutch, shifting the gear, slightly releasing the clutch, and accelerating slowly was looking extremely tough for me. When the car started moving, I felt like being on the top of the world. That joy was short-lived as the same issue of stamping clutch, releasing clutch, stamping accelerator kept popping up every 5-10 minutes. Control of the steering was rather okay, but I had major problems starting or stopping the car. Well, those are the major points, right? My confidence was beginning to hit rock bottom.

It wasn't long before my confidence got a much needed boost. This came in the form of my wife. She was looking extremely nervous much before sitting in the driver's seat, and when finally her chance came to sit there, she had fear in her eyes. She kept giggling nervously, which quickly turned to a worried expression as she struggled with the foot controls. She was using maximum strength for everything, be it pressing on the clutch or the accelerator or gripping the steering wheel. The instructor's main worry was whether the steering wheel would come off in her hands or whether it would break into smaller pieces. She was a nervous wreck by the end of it all.

For the next 3 days, we promptly didn't go as my health was a hindrance. It was today then, that we presented ourselves for the second class. This time, I made Ranji start off. She looked much more relaxed today, which was a good thing. Even though she still had some confusion with the controls, her eyes weren't threatening to pop out. I didn't get a chance today, but after looking at the improvement in Ranji, I am feeling all the more confident that I'm going to master this driving business sooner rather than later.