At a glance
2013 - Slow Beginnings
2023 - Fast forward
Updates
Closing Thoughts
2013.. I remember the time I got my licence. I was in Bangalore for vacation after my first year in college.. I had turned 18.. And my uncle told me to use my vacations by getting a driving licence. At that time, I wanted to learn to drive a bike more than his car. Which no one seemed interested to teach me!
So I enrolled in a driving school to learn to drive a car. Took a learner’s licence. I felt claustrophobic sitting behind the car’s driving wheel. More so when my instructor talked in Kannada or some English which also sounded like Kannada because of the heavy accent. I ended up doing guesswork to understand what he was saying and I guess he was doing the same.
I remember I could not reverse, shift gears much, pretty much do anything at the time. But I got the licence. The driving school instructor drove the car with one hand on the steering. and the clutch and brake he had on his side. The funny thing was- the observer was sitting in the rear seat.
Thanks to this setting the driving schools had with the Transport Office in those days that I got my licence. Even if I could not drive, I was a proud licence owner. Any my vacation goal was achieved in a way.
Needless to say, I never drove a car after getting the licence. I was happy enough with my scooty.
Fast forward- 2023
I was 28, back in Bangalore for a job. The world had opened after COVID. I still had my scooty. I have this new wish where I wanted to go on a road trip. In multiple places and just explore them at my pace. And realised my scooty would not be suitable for such trips. A caravan like Shahrukh had in Swades would be ideal.
Buying a caravan and going on road trips with people seemed possible and impossible.. Possible because obviously it was possible not like caravans were not available or people had already not done such stuff.. but impossible as to how would I get there?
I have no plan- how and where to get a caravan
Don’t probably have enough money to buy one
No places or checklisy I actually want to explore
I don’t have people who would want to do this
I don’t know how to drive a 4-wheeler, let alone a heavy vehicle like a caravan
Okay, so the thing to start with is - Learning to drive. So, later in the future, if the conditions become conducive, not knowing how to drive does NOT become a hindrance.
Fast forward - 15 July 2024. 1 year and 4 months after I got a car. I finally drove it alone.
It was not that straight forward. :p
All the people I know do this in 15 days. I took 15 months. And because of that - this is so important.
I ll go over the timeline and people who made this day possible first.
Timeline -
Feb 2023- Got a second hand car to learn to drive
April 2023- Joined a Driving school
Took 4-5 classes.. Did not like it..
Then hit my neighbour’s car. Did not drive again for 4-5 months.
June 2023- My sister had already learnt to drive
Sept 2023- Joined another driving school. Better than last but again useless. Took around 10 classes. But still no confidence to drive my car.
Somewhere after this I hit the car in the lamp post with the instructor sitting with me.
Jan 2024- Found an instructor ready to sit with me in my car. Took 4-5 lessons in my car
March 2024 - Found a colleague who was brave enough to risk her life sitting with me..
July 2024 - Took the car alone out for the first time
August 2024- Took the car alone out for the second time
People I could not have done this without-
Rachit
Golu
Mummy
Chandru bhaiya
Haripriya
Rachit - My brother
He helped us getting a second hand car and start to learn or re-learn.
He sat with us at times when both me and my sister had just started.
Whenever our car broke down, he came to our rescue for getting it repaired and serviced.
Fun fact- He finds car easier than bikes since he has only driven cars. And scooty is too small for him. He is my mama’s son. And we grew up in different cities. When I had first met him, he was 16 years old and he had given me a ride home. And he has been driving since he was 16 or even before.
Golu -
He is our go to brother for everything, and equally good at driving.
He also went with us for getting the car and also went with me on trips to finding driving schools
He is the most patient among all my brothers. And does not mind if I drive slow. And has been sitting with me behind the wheel from quite long ago before coming to Bangalore.
He had let me drive his new car once, when I did not know driving at all too. Itne bade dil waale log aur bhai kaafi kam hi hote hain. :D
I cannot thank BOTH of them enough. Well, this was one experience that made me realise the importance of cousins and brothers of similar age group. They make life so much easier. And are actually more available and reachable than friends in general. Kya hi bolun aur, bhagwan sabko aise bhai de :D
Mummy-
My brothers are boys who drive a lot.
My mom on the other hand, does not. And she was ready to sit with me/ or she wanted to sit with me when I had no skill/confidence to drive. Luckily for both of us, I did not share her confidence.
But because of her constantly saying -
Drive more often, its okay agar “lag gayi to”, chalaane se hi aayegi.
And even saying - “Sabko aati hai, tujhe kyon itna time lagta hai harr kaam mein” and hurting my pride.
Both of these dialogues made me pick up driving after leaving it multiple times and finally I am able to drive.
Chandru Bhaiya
My sister told people- Shaayad hi Bangalore mein koi driving school bacha ho jahan se Manu ne classes naa li ho.
To be fair - I had just tried two schools. And both of them were bad.
But the only good thing I found was - Chandru bhaiya. He is the only good instructor/useful person I found on my driving instructors hunt. And the only person I recommended to anyone else.
He was the first person, with whom I had the confidence to drive my own car.
Haripriya
She was neither my sister, nor my friend, nor did she know how bad and under confident I was when it came to driving at the time she agreed to sit with me. Even I was shocked when she agreed and turned up to help me.
I was impressed with her the day she came first at gokarting in a group of 11 and I came last. She left behind many proud folks, on pure merit. Little did I know the skill was present for driving a real car on a real road as well. She learnt driving well enough to drive alone in 3-4 days. Without even going to a formal driving school. And can give a lot of guys a run for their money if it ever came to racing I guess.. :D
She will always remind me that you can find good friends anywhere. And that there are very few genuinely skilled people.
After Chandru bhaiya and Golu, she turned out to be one person who sat with me behind the wheel. And she never panicked. Or felt there was nothing to panic! Even if the car stopped just when the light went green, went reverse downhill, had almost flat tire on a highway, nothing seemed bothersome or annoying to her. The kind of attitude she had, I probably won’t ever have, at least not until I became a mechanic who could repair cars mid-road.
Many times she used to pick and drop me back and that really was way out the way for anyone to do.
And that taught me- You might find friends, you might find skilled people, but finding someone who teaches you something without any expectations.. Very rare.
It is because of her, I can finally drive alone now.
One thing I learnt was-
I had started feeling that I would NOT be able to drive alone ever. Because with everyone I drove, they used to tell me some mistakes. Things I could improve on. But this feeling- I can drive alone. Just came on its own one day.
I had a sleepless night before I attempted this stunt for the first time. But it just happened. And then I drove a few more times. And it just happened.
So, the lesson was - Trust the process. It will happen when you least expect it to. :)
Another interesting thing that happened was - I got interested in learning about cars again. I wanted to be a mechanical engineer back in the day. And for me- mechanical engineer meant a person who could talk to machines - make and repair every machine/gadget .. anything and everything. So, when my car needed a service, I watched videos on auto repair and tried servicing it with the kind folks who very helpfully taught me whatever they could.
Updates
Now I have started taking test drives. However, the first test drive I recently did, gave heart attacks to almost everyone for no reason :p.
Closing Thoughts
Yes, driving a caravan and going on exploratory road trips is still something I need to figure out. For now- Driving a car - check.
Self Note – (*touchwood*)! Be alert and confident (not overconfident). and one day you might even start enjoying driving with music and it will become a muscle memory and as effortless as driving a scooty.
twwg
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