STEERING MY WAY: HOW I LEARNT TO DRIVE

My life continued to revolve around my two sons and house. I was full of contentment for all that I had. The desire to learn to drive a car was never there, even when coaxed to learn that flame never kindled. No amount of persuasion could take me behind the steering wheel. “I have a full-time driver (my husband) who would take me wherever and whenever I shall go” is all I could say to justify my action.

I started learning to drive after immense persuasion from all quarters. Every day I touched the vehicle, I convinced myself of my [dis]abilities to learn it. The dogged helplessness I felt after helping a stray dog to make an obituary and a near-fatal accident at a right-angled crossing near my home paved the way to let driving be a distant dream for me. Overcoming those mental barriers to resume my driving lessons took almost three years.

I finally succumbed to my sisterly pressures and took to wheels. My sister would always call me at four in the evening to ” Take the car and go.” Another friend of mine would drive to work from a long distance. I could see her through the window pane of my clinic. Yeah! Everyone’s learning.

Two young boys perched up on the edge of the backseat curiously watching the traffic through the windscreen with me sitting in a perfectly terse posture was a common opinion of the people who would see me drive. As time passed, the children made themselves more comfortable with music, and conversation replaced the silence in the car. A decade later, it is time to say “adieu” to RJ 01 C3591. I have no car at a stretch for ten days. Today, I realize how much I miss my driving.

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