The Art of Driving..

"You are in your mid 30’s, making a fortune every month, have a luxurious car standing in the garage.. yet prefer coming to work by taxis and cabs, even better, autorickshaws , every single day..?? Come On Siddharth”.

"That’s rude Rajeev.. Sid is a baby.. and our baby is scared to drive in the capital city.. Have you seen the traffic ? So many girls as well on the driving seat.. This is a serious matter.. One should be scared.. Right Sid..” added  Keshav.

“Shut up you both…” Siddharth Bajwa was constantly vexed  by his colleagues at work because he was scared of driving.  A car nut, Siddharth maintained his car very well but he could never imagine being on the driving seat himself. The idea of a driver handling his dream machine wasn’t appealing either. Daily arguments with the autorickshaw drivers had taken a toll on him. Cabs were expensive and  changing three metros to get to work was equally tiring.

As a boy of 19, Siddharth had once experimented with his father’s Maruti Van. Unfortunately, for the neighbours, their Ambassador along with the Maruti Van was later found at the mechanic’s workshop. The neighbours had to be compensated monetarily and the frequent flow of halwa, chana, rajma from the neighbourhood into the Bajwa family ceased thereafter.

Sid could never forget the abuses hurled at him from Senior Bajwa and the neighbours on that fateful day. He was deeply hurt and pledged that day , he would never dare drive a vehicle !

One fine day, Sid was struggling to fix the deal with the autorickshaw driver.

“Meter se chaloge ?? Nahin chaloge to complain kar doonga tumhari..” Sid was familiar with the tricks by now.

“Jao.. Jao.. Nahin jaoonga Meter se.. Complain kar do.. itna hai to khud gaadi chalao na..” The autorickshaw driver was gone but left Sid furious. Now the Autowala hadn’t spared him either.

Determined to undo the pledge, Sid ,now, decided to enroll himself in a driving school. Procuring a driving license has never been a problem as Delhi is the city of ‘jugaad’. With renewed confidence, Sid started his early morning driving lessons with ‘Driver Jagjeet’. Sid believed that his skills were improving with each passing day while Jagjeet knew the bare truth. With an extra accelerator, brake and clutch under his control, Jagjeet called the shots while Sid cheerfully played around with the steering wheel.

Finally, after two weeks of assiduous practice, the D day arrived. The happy bachelor offered his morning prayers after a long time and was ready to grace the driving seat of his unused , almost new, Swift Dzire. The guards in his apartment were also pleased at this sight but most of all, Sid wanted to seek revenge on his colleagues. This was his day.

He was stable on the wheels, confidently managed to bring the car out of his apartment, took a left turn , had barely travelled a km and there was a traffic signal. Sid, like an obedient citizen, stopped his car, was trying to set the radio frequency when he heard a BANG !! Lo Behold ! A truck had rammed into his car’s posterior very shamelessly. An accident at the ‘Red Light’ was even more shameful !

After a lot of chaos and drama in the middle of the road, Sid had to make a choice. Either he returns home with the battered car and heads to work in an auto or takes the battered car to work with oomph and pride !

Since then, its been a  year and Siddharth Bajwa continues to drive his Swift Dzire. His car looks like one returned from a war zone with scratches and dents all over, the side mirror was damaged last week by a bull that appeared from nowhere in the middle of the street.

Sid has overcome all fears and drives to work happily , also follows his favourite Radio Jockey  on the way because he has realized that the plight of his car will not be determined by his driving skills alone, it is largely determined by the fellow citizens and animals on the busy streets of Delhi !