There were two things in my life which I thought would never happen. First, an academic degree and second – a driving license. I always thought I never needed the first but these days I have a passion for learning and planning to enroll for a distance education degree program of Calicut University. It still remains in the plan but now I have confidence that I can at least give it a try.
If a degree was something I thought I could do but wouldn’t do, obtaining a driving license was something I thought I would never be able to do even if I gave it a try. Right from the boyhood, I never had the passion to learn driving or even riding, for that matter. It’s strange that I cannot remember many boys who rode bicycles in the neighborhood and that probably shows the lack of my interest in driving. My family kept insisting that I should learn but I was hesitant. When my brother was about to buy a new motorbike he offered me his old one, a Kawasaki bike, if I learned to ride but I did not show any interest. Some of my friends were interested to teach me and offered help, but they finally gave up because I would never comply .
Years of people insisting led me to join a driving school eventually at the age of 25, but the fees I paid was wasted. Those ‘teachers’ at the driving school were much younger than me and they couldn’t understand why I was such a dumb student and I couldn’t take their insult. I couldn’t even balance a gear-less Kinetic and it reinstated my belief that vehicles wouldn’t work for me. I completely gave up on driving after that.
I don’t know why, but I was plain scared of the roads. Or rather about taking control of the roads I should say, because I was never afraid to travel in a fast moving bike or a car if somebody else was in control of the vehicle. In fact, I loved the speed as long as I wasn’t the one accelerating it. I also thought driving wasn’t fun. I could never understand when people said they would just take their cars out for the fun of it. For me, enjoying a ride means sitting on the back and enjoying the passing sights, but never about when to hit the brake, how much to accelerate, when to change the gears, watching out on people or other vehicles on the roads and traffic.
I have been humiliated or felt being insulted many times in my life for not knowing how to ride or drive a vehicle. My friends do it all the time, my family were concerned and would bring in the topic during family events, sometimes I was asked to take a vehicle and go (by people who did not know that I couldn’t ride) and I was so embarrassed in all those moments. After the wedding, the pressure was being unbearable. My wife kept begging and bugging me to learn driving and finally I had agreed that I would try again.
The driving lessons were tough and scary for me right from the beginning but this time I did not give up. When the first driving test failed, I was nervous and even thought of giving it up again but then I decided no matter how many road tests I fail, I would try again and again until I got the driving license. So finally, I got one in the last October. And then on January this year, I bought an old Maruti 800 and driving it since then. It’s not like I am a master of driving by now (I still learn new things everyday I go out in the car), but the fear of driving or being on the road is slowly fading away. I am beginning to enjoy the drive now.
So I am happy that I can finally say that, even though I do not know how to ride a bicycle or a motor bike, I know how to drive a car though I am not a perfect driver yet. And I can take my family along to places without having to wait for an auto-rickshaw, a bus or rely on other people for a lift.
And do you know what a driving license could really do? It’s not just that I learned to drive. But learning to drive has brought some self-confidence that I was seriously lacking in my life. And it is afterwards that I seriously thought of enrolling for the degree program. Isn’t it amazing what little things could do to change your life for good?