The Art of Driving

Nowadays, I m learning to drive the CAR. Ya, In bold letters, because once upon a time, it scared the hell out of me. My first day on the driver seat was in class 12th, when my father was teaching my sister to drive. My mother asked him to teach me side by side. Well, only then I understood, there is a lot of difference between theory and practical. I was very good with the theory of the car, three pedals, Accelerator, Brakes, Clutch, the famous A,B,C of a car. And I knew how the reverse works. Atleast, I m very good in physics. My mother was also happy to see that as he knew I will able to drive the best, so she told dad to include me too in his class with sister. When she learnt, I used to laugh in the back seat on his driving and my father scolding her.
So, one day, he asked me to come on the driver seat. I was very excited. I almost knew everything about the car, ABC of the car, 5 gears and a reverse with exact positions of each, indicators, and lights. So, as I sat on the driver seat, and was going to send the spark to the engine,
Wham!! “Who will buckle up the seat belt?” As told, I buckled it up.
Wham!! “Who will the check the gears? Never start a car in gear” Fine, I am doing that too.
Finally, his orders ceased and I started the car. Pressed the clutch and put it in first gear and then the wheels started to rotate and
One, two, three and stop.
“What happened?” “You left the clutch very fast, you need to declutch your first gear too slowly.”

Well, after that I heard a lot of sentences, some of them I don’t remember too. And in later days, I used to get a tight slap on my feet when something went wrong. It was the month of May, so I used to drip with sweat. Finally, after ten days, I left driving. And gave the excuse that I will learn it after my board exams.
But it never happened. Only after three years, when my sister shifted, and my father transferred, my car was left abandoned, its sky blue color getting brown with dirt. My parents asked me to drive the car and learn how to drive. Even I didn’t have any need for it, as I was happy with my legs walking down the streets and my college was easily accessible by metro, watching the car deteriorate attracted me to drive it. So, finally with my father, I started driving, again. But this time, it was different. I was aware of all the basic knowledge and with three years passed, my father was more cool and encouraged me if I did mistake with proper explanation of each mistake. So, I learnt my driving fast. Atleast, nowadays, I can take it out of the parking lot, go in busy roads and come back and keep it in its original position. But as seen, it would take me another year to drive like my father. I sometimes joke that he should have been in the F1 circuit driving Maclaren and competing with Schumacher, rather than the local truck drivers and Safari owners.
The car driving is really an art to learn. Normal driving on the roads, reversing is easy, but making it run smoothly, shifting the gears at just the right times, making the parts live longer needs much more than just driving. You have to understand its language, the sounds it makes and then only you can enjoy sitting beside the driver and enjoy the ride.
My father says, “The car will tell you everything, you just hhave to listen it, and then you will see you don’t even need to press the C pedal.” Those who don’t believe this, let me tell you, I have experienced it, although coincidently.