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Driving Chronicles 1: Week one

Cars always fascinated me, rather driving cars did. Ever since I went on the Pune-Mahabaleshwar-Satara road trip, I wanted to learn driving, and be able to rent a car and take my family out for a drive or something. Or go on more road trips with friends. Or just go out once in a while, for a nice long drive.

Starting this Monday, I joined a driving school nearby. I drove a Maruti Swift Dzire and a Maruti Wagon R for the past week, and both vehicles are in good shape. The instructor is also good, he is quite attentive, and he solved like a million of my doubts this week. He laid out a great roadmap, which I thought was too simple to be true:

  1. Days 1-3: Steering
  2. Days 4,5: Gears
  3. Day 6: Clutch, brake and acceleration
At the end of this week, he says I have learnt the basics of driving. Sounded too good to be true!

Steering is basically holding the wheel for a long time, and then turning as and when required. Easy enough, right? I felt steering was the hardest. At first, I did not understand the turning radius of the car, which was natural, given my inexperience. How much to turn was a calculation that depended on speed, turning radius of the road, the vehicles coming from the opposite side, and how fast I could turn the steering wheel, and all this needed to be done in under a second. Thankfully, by the end of day three, I was able to take good turns, U-turns, and making 8 patterns. I thought one more day of steering practice would have been useful.

Gears hate me. My experience with gears has been horrible and painful to say the least. My friend can attest to that. But surprisingly, gears on car seemed a totally different beast altogether. I was able to shift gears quite cleanly, and was also able to turn the car. I think with practice, I'll get much better at driving a car faster than I was able to on a bike. My friend should write a blog post about how he taught me to ride a bike, and I guarantee you that it will be hilarious. Anyway, I got curious about manual transmission and ended up reading all about engine mechanics, and gears and drivetrain and the lot. https://auto.howstuffworks.com/transmission.htm is a great read.

Inside a car, you have no idea about the speed at which you are going! I think that is scary, especially for a newbie driver. I went at 50 km/hr and realized only when I sneaked a peek at the speedometer! To be honest, I was scared more than thrilled at that instant. I managed to maintain my composure, but I realized how careful you have to be while driving a car. A small mistake at that speed can have disastrous consequences, not only for you but also anyone on the road.

This led me to read about seatbelts and windbags, and how absolutely essential they are. Safety while driving is no joke, and I hope no one takes safety for granted. Please keep phones away, and focus on the road more than anything else.

Next update on next Saturday, by which time I hope I have learnt and practiced driving more. I am looking forward to the day I go on my first road trip, in which I'll drive. That is still some time away, and is one my main motivations for driving.


Adios!
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