Note - I drafted this 10 years ago and posting it today 😇
This is one saying in Telugu which I used to hear from my
Telugu teacher in my school days. So much true!!! Proven in my case. I am
talking about my first drive to office without my husband sitting beside in the
car. Today (03 Jul, 2015) is a very big day for me. We are living in a
generation where buying a car is not a big thing. But to me, driving a car is a
BIGGGGGGGGGGGG thing, I am still not able to believe that I drove the car to my
workplace all the way by myself, because I don't even know how to ride a
bicycle or drive a two-wheeler till date. I have started learning how to drive
a car an year ago, my husband being my teacher. Very good teacher he is :).
Very patient indeed. So, goes the saying :).
Before starting todays' drive, I had the change (Rs.30), ready for the toll and the phone holder holding my phone with the destination in Google Maps set to my office. I didn’t want any confusion while driving. But one thing I missed was, there was very little charging in my phone :(.
The first time I tried starting the car a few years back, the car jumped and then came to a halt, skipping my heart beat. That's it. I didn't dare to touch the steering for the next two years or so. After a lot of persuasion from my husband I had to mentally prepare myself first for the driving thing.
So, since a year I used to venture driving on the weekends when we go places mainly to buy something or so. I rode on highways during our Kerala Visit and a few other places. My husband used to be happy with one thing for sure about his student. Whenever he offered me to drive, I was always ready. I was a very slow learner for his pace (otherwise also of course ;) so he had to be very cool. Another weapon we women have if we get scoldings is the tap running from the eyes. It was a seldom case in our scenario though, but nevertheless, he had to be careful;) Since then I have been trying to learn and every time he is there to guide and correct me whenever required. When everything goes smooth on a day, my confidence levels would shoot up ;) and if I make a mistake, I used to give up saying this is not my cup of tea. Then he is there to push me...He was very strict in the teaching process, not letting any mistake creep in. Every single traffic rule has to be followed while learning.. that's the pre-condition. When I point someone out and say 'look he is not following the rules', he would say, "Know what is right and learn it the right way".
With all this learning, I dared to drive the car all alone to office. If driving all the way from home to office is a big thing, parking is another whole challenge. I managed to do this properly after a lot of caution. But wait, it is incomplete if I don’t double-check if I have pulled the hand break up, put the drive mode to neutral, closed all the doors properly and pulled all the windows up etc. After checking this from within car, I got down and checked if the car is parked in alignment with the yellow parking lines in the parking lot. Also, checked from outside if all the doors are closed and locked by pulling each of the door, thereby, completing the circumambulation of the car which is called pradakshina in Telugu. So, I treated the car almost like a god and did all the due rituals before leaving it in the parking lot and headed to my work with a sense of accomplishment and pride 😁.
No comments:
Post a Comment