With 9 months of proud car ownership. And also with hands on real-time driving experience in the most hazardous of the conditions ever, I reckon that I am worthy enough to share some of my healthy and ,of course, more unhealthy experiences that would be beneficial to some greenhorns and frustrated drivers.
Car driving has been one of my passions. However, I hadn't had an 'opportunity' (nope, necessity is the word) to really drive my heart out. Since I was born, we always had a car and a driver too, to face the music. So, I was reluctant, rather lazy, to learn driving. However, when I was out of house and when I saw some of my friends driving, I felt like the time has come. So, I asked my dad to buy me a car and he readily gave the nod (what a father. I am blessed:-)).
Then started my ordeal. All I knew is that a level head and a bit of concentration are required to acquire this art. I always knew that I am a sensible driver and when I stick to the basics, everything would fall in place. And thankfully everything fell in place.
Now, the real intension behind writing this article is not to describe my outing with my car but rather to put forth some guidelines, coupled with some of my findings, that would make car driving a pleasure, a pleasure which has turned a nightmare lately. This article will not teach you how to drive (changing gears, reversing etc) but rather make you aware of some finer aspects of driving such as 'enjoying a drive' that are not taught at a driving school.
On a fabulous evening with sun dropping down to bed, car loaded with full tank, long-wide road with absolutely no vehicles, with light music on, and more importantly with your girl by the side, one hand on the steering and another holding her hand. Amazing!!. I would live for this day and I am waiting for it. However, the cruel side of life is not what we see in movies or what we dream of.
Packed roads on a week-day evening, with cars, trucks, city buses, autos and my dear two-wheelers sprayed all around, when the movement is bumper-to-bumper, lights on, and when you approach a 45 degree incline and when your car stops and tends to go backwards. One Skoda in front and one Toyota behind, blaring horns. And, at the nick of the moment, when you somehow start to pull the trigger to move forward, one guy on a pulsar suddenly cuts inside, diagonally, in front of you ..PRICELESS!!!
This is a reality show, not the movie described in the paragraph above the previous one. Even a kid can drive on an empty road, but the real skill, mental strength and the ability to perform come out in such challenging situations. To really counter such situations one needs to follow the following :
1) Be patient.
2) Stick to the rules.
3) Understand your co-commuters.
4) Be concentrated.
5) Shed your ego and Compromise.
6) Last but not the least "Enjoy Driving"
You should be a sage on the road. Patience is the key. Those extra minutes that we gain by driving unnecessarily fast doesn't really make any difference, if you analyze properly. However, by driving with undue speed, the risk involved is humongous. Some say "Speed thrills". Yes, it does and some enjoy that thrill. There is another thrill if you can really enjoy, it would make car driving a joy. The thrill of moving in the first gear, with an expensive vehicle in front in a packed road. Any inches front or back, you hit and gone. This is the real "THRILL" and you encounter it umpteen times day-in and day-out. If you 'enjoy' this thrill, you are done for life.
It is not just you drive your own car and you change your own gears. One needs to maneuver through like a bee. Understanding your fellow commuters and actually stepping into their shoes, which is quite essential. It is all down to a psychological game, in other words, 'Driving is like playing the game of Chess'. People now-a-days no longer use signals. A nod of the head or a movement suspicious is itself a signal that the guy would take a turn. I rate the two wheelers, the most annoying section of the commuters. Even, the auto fellas can be tackled easily. But not the two wheelers. They never ever go straight. They would also move diagonally searching for empty places, cramping up the car drivers for room.
Especially, the Hyderabad traffic is notorious for its insensible commuters and educated illiterates who somehow lose all inhibitions when they are out on the road. How many times we come across traffic jams for no reason. I plead my fellow car drivers to remain in their own half and not to occupy the other way of a two-way road. One obnoxious weed in the garden of roses is enough to destroy the garden. This is always true when it comes senseless people, causing malicious deadlocks, affecting many.
Never get carried away, however good the conditions are. We never know what's up for grabs. In the face of danger always remain composed and feel responsible. Shedding of ego and Forgiveness (To some permissible level) are a great virtues to possess while driving. Once, a young man on a two-wheeler hit the rear end of my car. I could have got out of the car and blasted that guy. However, I didn't. Had I done that, an unthinkable stalemate would have resulted. Though I felt bad for a moment, I was satisfied later that I behaved sensibly. Of course the damage wasn't huge.
Wearing seat belts is one rule that the government has been emphasizing on rigorously. It is a reasonable thing for the government to do. However, this 'wearing seat belts' thing is a more an individualistic phenomenon. If one doesn't wear seat belts , oneself is under risk. Still if one continues not to wear. Who cares , if one oneself is not bothered about life. Moreover, there are certain breakages of rules that directly affect other sensible commuters. They include: jumping on signals, crossing the divide so as to cramp the two-way lane, taking turns with no or wrong signal etc. I feel that these things should be taken more seriously and punished more than what is being done now.
It is getting worse. Really worse. I just cannot imagine Hyderabad traffic, for that matter, any place in India some time down the line. Thankfully, I will be out of India soon, where I can go on a long drive, with no vehicles around, hopefully, with my girl beside, if at all I get one. I wish and pray that somehow the Indian government pulls a rabbit out of the hat and create a utopia by the time I come back to my mother land.
Jai Hind :-)
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