On the road, driving after ages....

On the road, driving after ages....

The last time I drove a car is more than three years ago. My brother was posted as the Chairman and Managing Director of the Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers group RCF and had been allocated a beautiful bungalow at Chembur. My parents stayed with him and visitng them with my son, Vishnu was my usual routine on weekends.
Those were the only day in the week when I sat behind the wheels.
I had procured a licence more than thirty years ago and have always prided over the fact that I had driven all types of vehicles from cars and jeeps to autorickshaws and even a truck. Sitting behind the wheel, hands on the steering has an altogether different charm. Every ride was enjoyable.
On his retirement, my brother shifted out of his RCF bungalow to a flat on the 11th road at Chembur. And with it ended my days of driving.
This was mainly due to the geography of the area. The lanes of Chembur were extremely narrow in contrast to RCF colony. I was always afraid I would be unable to manouevre the car in these lanes. I would also dread whether I would be able to reverse into the parking slot properly. The shift in my job also made me more and more dependent on a chauffeur driven vehicle and before long I had forgotten how to drive.
Often, I used to imagine getting back at it but the growing number of vehicles, the crowded roads made me panic. With Ola and Uber at ones beck and call , making that effort to drive became almost redundant. Of course, I made no bones about the fact about being an expert whenever any of my drivers committed a faux pas while driving. Those were the times, I would rant about my latent skills in driving.
However in reality I feared driving again. My gut feeling was that I had forgotten driving. More so because my knees had gone wobbly that one time when I had to shift the car within our building on Holi. I contemplated enrolling myself again in a driving school to relearn driving.
Every now and then , I used to imagine myself driving but never did that in reality as the thought of driving gave me nightmares.
But probably one's ardent desires are ultimately blessed by God.
After what seemed ages , I was home on the weekend actually relaxing when I happened to glance at our car parked in our building compound. All of a sudden, I felt an urge to sit behind the wheels. The fact that my driver was around gave me the confidence. I mustered enough courage to overcome my embarrassment and ask him to sit next to me while I drove.
Getting into the car, I strapped myself with the seatbelt, adjusted the mirrors, released the hand breaks, turned on the ignition. My feet on the clutch , I slowly changed gears and set the car into momentum. Soon I was out of the building on to the road.
Surprisingly, there was no anxiety or fear, my mind was composed, confident and sure maybe because of the driver sitting next to me. Whatever it was, being in control of the car gave me a great feeling of confidence. I felt even better when I realised that everything about driving came back to me in matter of seconds.
I overcame all obstacles including the crowds in the busy lanes near Mulund station. Of course, I was very slow and doubly cautious and that little bit of nervousness was but natural.
The fact that I was comfortable behind the wheels again needed celebration. As I picked up a tub of ice cream from the shop nearby and actually reversed the vehicle to drive home to celebrate with my son I was beaming from ear to ear....