LEARNING TO DRIVE AT 25

Happy Women’s Day!! Being a woman, mockery for not being a “good driver” would have surely come your way and Women’s Day is all about breaking these Glass Ceilings. Recently, I uploaded a video of me driving a car. This was a moment of achievement as it has been one of the major bucket list items that I have been planning to tick off for a long time, partially because I am turning 26 soon (though I totally don’t feel it 😛 ).

Yeah, what a shame, to be turning 26 and still not knowing how to drive a car. Since my friends drive like I have extra lives, I decided to do myself a favor and learn driving myself. This is how it was struck off my bucket list.

This journey had started in 2019 when a colleague (and a very good friend of mine) offered to teach me and few of my friends how to drive. Those were my initial lessons and i was taught the ABCs of driving, literally. So, the first car that I had started learning on was a Ford Aspire.

With the onset of the pandemic, work from home began. I lost touch from the usual practise. When the lockdown was lifted, I and my sister decided that we should learn driving together.

26th January 2021, the day when we started the training with one of the reputed driving training schools – Peacock Driving Training School!!

The trainer Mr. Sankar who has been training people to drive for the past 12 years was very welcoming and made sure I was not too nervous before the beginning of the lessons. With my experience of driving, I had learnt that it’s very important to be calm and relaxed when you drive, otherwise things can go wrong. The trainer patiently took control and explained the technicalities perfectly, and again whenever things went wrong. The training went on for a span of two weeks. At the end of the training, I was pretty sure I could drive decently.

Life with Lax SUbhalaxmi Driving Happiness is taking my Dad's Place in the Driving Seat

On the 16th day, I decided to start practising in our own car, an Indica Vista. This turned out to be a very traumatic experience at first. It took time to understand the controls as it was way different from the training car that I had driven previously. The clutch seemed quite sensitive, it felt as if I don’t require an accelerator in this one. The steering had a different story to tell, the left side mirror was missing and so was my ability to reverse the car properly. My father who was there to help me out with learning about the controls was in a frenzy.

I was nervous. Confused. Lost. And almost in tears!!

With time, things got better. I got more comfortable with every turn I took. I started to love the smoothness of it, instead of the grumbling engine of the training school car. The gears and clutch control came more naturally to me this time. The techniques learnt from the training school were polished with practise. After almost a week or two, I was ready to hit the road.

What did I learn from this experience?

Be responsible when on road.
When driving you are responsible for your life, and also for others who are with you on road. Rash driving is most likely to injure other people and might land you in jail for up to 6 months.

Don’t be over-confident about your skills.
Things can go wrong in a flick of seconds and you might hurt other people on road. Stay completely focused and relaxed. Understand how much you can handle and abide by that.

Go by techniques, rather than just intuitions.
Techniques will help you get through emergency situations. Remember what you learnt from your trainer: how to drive uphill, what gear to apply, how to control the clutch in a busy road.
My personal recommendation would be to maintain a safe distance from all sides and the vehicles around you. When you are in a country like India, where the number of vehicles on road is increasing day-by-day, it is very normal to encounter unforeseen situations. Keeping a safe distance will enable you to act when such a situation comes up. Inculcating this habit in the beginning stages can greatly help you in the future.

Have someone to help, if needed.
Initially start with an experienced and cool minded trainer. I cannot emphasize it more. I have known people who could not learnt driving due to impatient and short-tempered trainers. Be mentally prepared for anything. It is recommended to start with a car with controls on both sides. (Training schools teach you in such cars!)

Observe and Learn.
If someone is driving you, observe the driver and their actions in different situations. You should be able to predict when to change the gears, control the clutch, look out for other vehicles and change the lanes while giving space to other cars.

Learning new things has always been my thing and driving is unarguably a must-have-skill. Be it a travel trip or any medical emergency, driving makes you reliable and independent, and lets you live life to the fullest. Don’t be skeptical about learning to drive, if you haven’t already. Trust me, you won’t regret this.