First solo long drive in India

After so many years of driving in India, this is the first time I did a solo long journey. Last Saturday I drove from Bangalore to Coimbatore on my own, non-stop for a total of 6 hours averaging at 70kmph.

I was a little apprehensive about it when I had planned it , because I haven’t done something like that before and I wasn’t sure how to handle any problems in my car, if that happens. But then I did not find an alternative option to leave my​ car with my sister, now that I ain’t using it anymore. 

I started at around 8.45 am after a couple of eggs as breakfast. I decided to stop somewhere if I felt hungry. But then I just kept driving on and on and when I felt hunger I was close to my home town. So decided to just get there and have my lunch. 

I have always enjoyed driving. But driving on my own with just me and my thoughts and my songs, and sometimes the lack of it,  it’s like a meditative process. I loved it. I had a good old playlist which has always helped me with my driving and I used it this time too. I thought that after a non stop drive like that I would be sore. Thankfully a couple of stretches helped me with my stiffness. Now that I have done that I am a little bit more confident about my  driving. And my good old car supported me like a champ that it is. 

Driven by emotion

1. To the guy, who was driving before me very slowly and so far away from the car before him that people stopped for a second to see who it was in the car before they overtook him and to my amusement this guy opened his visor to check in the mirror there if he had something on his face and was trying to settle his hair, dude! it isn’t your face that needs fixing.
2. I am really very happy that my olfactory senses are shot and I can’t pick up odors most of the times. Especially when you end up being in a lift full of people and they have just come from the sweltering heat outside and are all sweaty.
3. Coming back to driving, I was tempted to bump into the guy before me (not the same as the guy in the first point, this was a little later) so that my bumper will get attached to his tail gate and I can drive both our cars forward because this guy wasn’t going anywhere even though the road before him was quite empty. It might be that he was just learning to drive, then he should have the L sticker his car, to let the rest know so that we can find ways to overtake him (not that I had an option in this case, but I would not have cursed him to hell) and if he was just taking his time driving, knowing pretty well how to drive, then he is an a$$hole and deserved every one of my curse.
4. When I heard that my dad’s moped got stolen yesterday, it brought back memories of my first cycle which was also stolen. It wasn’t just stolen, it was removed part by part and they left the unwanted parts strewn around in the backyard (our rental house had a huge backyard and I used to lock my bicycle there). One of those times when I thought my anger would have burned a hole through someone, especially the culprit. That was such a hard earned bicycle (won it after a bet with my dad) and he didn’t even have the courtesy to take it as is. He mutilated it. I hope the thief is rotting in hell.
5. I think I am in a killer mood today 😯

(In)Appropriate Responses @ (In)Appropriate Times

I got a Tantra Fluke-Car Bluetooth Hands-free Kit yesterday and decided to test it today, while on my way to office. There is an official call everyday at 10 am and I usually either attend that at home and start to office or reach office before the call. Since the last two weeks, I have been feeling very lazy to start early so I thought may be I can use this occasion and drive to work at 10 am and attend the call in my car. All was going well during the call, until someone decided to run across the road and they chose my car to cross leaving all the other vehicles that were before mine. And when the guy crossed the road he looked back and gave me a shrug because I was throwing daggers at him with my looks and I lost it when he shrugged that I shouted out loud ‘Dude! Are you serious ? What’s wrong with you!? ‘ And my manager had to go and ask me ‘what is your status on this action item’ ? just before I shouted at the guy on the road. And all was quiet for sometime over the conference call. I took a few seconds to realize what I just said and had to clarify that it wasn’t aimed at my manager and that a guy crossed the road at a very inappropriate time and all of them started laughing out. Phew! I forgot that I had this habit of talking to people on the road, while driving. Combining this with my conference call doesn’t look like a bright idea to me. Right?

Driver’s Chart

While driving back from work, I was stuck behind a car even though the road was pretty empty. Either the driver was a newbie or the person was in no hurry to go anywhere or a plain dumb idiot who thought he owned the road. Since I wasn’t sure which category the person belonged to, I wasn’t sure if I should be cursing him (I am a little nice that way) It would be of great help if people would let go of their ego and actually put on that L sign on their cars, if they are truly learning. That would help others to find ways to not get irritated with them and may be find other ways to get past them without scaring them. I can’t guarantee that others will do it, but I surely empathize with learners and make sure they don’t get honked or bullied on the road. I was truly in their seat once upon a time. I was also wondering if we can have different levels of signs like the shirt size chart.

S – Starting to learn (that would mean they know only the first gear and nothing more and not in possession of a valid license. Also applicable to minors, irrespective of how well they can drive) 

L – Learner (Got the learner’s license, they can manage but still might get stuck sometimes in between the first and second gear, so don’t honk too much if I am struggling with my gear in a traffic signal) 

M – Mediocre (Have driven for quite some time, but have not yet mastered it) (I belong to this category actually)

XL – Excellent Driver (Driven in all kinds of landscapes, all times of the day and can drive with their eyes closed, metaphorically I mean)

Can you think of some other signs ?

Memory Quirks

No wonder humans and the functions of a human brain is so complex that we can never figure out fully about how they work. Especially the memory part. It is not like a hard disk in your computers where its a WYSIWYG (what you store is what you get). Sometimes I wish I had a Pensieve (like in Harry Potter series). Makes it a lot easier. The other day I was thinking about how I can recall all the car’s license plate numbers of my friends (because we generally car pool when we are out and about during the weekends) but I can’t remember any of their phone numbers. If I lost my phone, I would struggle a lot. After so many years, I have come to remember my sibling’s and parent’s number and for any emergency all I can do is blurt out a number of my family, who is not in the same city. Similarly, I am pathetic with birthdays. Again because they are family, I remember their’s. Otherwise, I don’t remember any of my friend’s date of birth. Since they are awesome, they remind me a day earlier and I add it to my calendar 😉 Sometime back I had been to a bank to draw a draft. There is a new rule that a draft can be issued only for an account holder, of which I wasn’t aware of, but luckily I did have an account with that bank. The only problem being I hadn’t used it in a long time and it got deactivated. When they asked me for the account number to activate the same, I wasn’t able to recall it. But when I took a pen and a paper, I was able to write it down correctly. That was strange. How can I write something down when I can’t actually recall it to tell it out loudly ? Its been more than a year since I used that account. Memories and its tryst with numbers, I always end up dumbfounded with these.