Skip to main content

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!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Robin Hood Army

18th October 2018 10:30 pm: I get a call saying there is food for more than 50 people left over at a function organized in a residential complex. I am tired after a long day but I decide to go anyway. I call a guy who has reached there, and he says he needs more people. I reach the complex and see the amount of food left over, and it is for more than 150 people! Thankfully we were 5 people, and we were able to get an auto to the place where we knew there would be a lot of people to donate the food to. We went 12km to the place, at 12 in the night, and served the food among the slum dwellers, auto-wallahs, and others. We took more time to wake people up from sleep and let them know that there is food than distributing the food itself. That day we would have served around 150 people, people who otherwise would have gone to sleep on an empty stomach. Distributing food at midnight Who are we? We are Robin Hood Army, a volunteer organization which focuses on donating excess...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nagarjuna Sagar

When you learn something, you need to put it to use. You need to apply what you learnt to a real world scenario. Only then do you really get to know how much you actually learnt. Last Sunday was one where I put my driving skills to the test. I went on a bike trip with a great friend to Nagarjuna Sagar Dam. This guy was my bike guru. He was going to decide if I was roadworthy. He's not a strict teacher per se, but I didn't want to disappoint him. So, the day after I got my driver's license, we set off, in the sweltering Hyderabad heat. The city part was really tricky, and I knew that I won't be confidently able to maneuver the traffic deftly. Already we were a tad late, so my guru handled the bike till the outskirts of the city. After having sumptuous breakfast(amazing sambar!), I started driving, and he guided me. Initially after a few hiccups, my confidence started to wobble. Fortunately, the highway started, and we had lots of free road, and no pesky autos....
Post a Comment
Read more

Movie review: English Vinglish

I might be 6 years late, but here is my review of this Bollywood movie, starring Sridevi. Directed by Gauri Shinde, this film tackles some This film is freakin' awesome! I can't believe I hadn't watched this movie before. And if you haven't watched it, I suggest you clear out your calendar for tomorrow and grab some popcorn. This is mostly a serious movie, but the lighter moments are well placed, and make great viewing. The plot, the dialogues, the screenplay, everything is perfect. This movie is worth paying big bucks to watch on the big screen, unlike me, who watched it 6 years late on a 14 inch touchscreen. Sridevi is absolutely mesmerizing. Her acting in this movie is one of the best acting performances I have ever seen. When you watch her, her struggles become yours. You feel her happiness and sadness. You want her to do well. You want her to show the world, how much she can accomplish. Anything more I say here will be spoilers for the few people w...
Post a Comment
Read more