brake.. Brake! Braaaaake !! THUDD…

The first two decades of my life were blissful. I had no serious concerns. I didn’t put myself or other people in danger. And one day, I woke up and wanted to drive….

I never really gave much thought to transport. When I was little, there was always somebody to pick and drop me. After I grew up, there was public transport for the times that such a convenience was not available. Traffic, directions, routes, geography.. these things were never a concern. I was peacefully pillion. My biggest concern, while on a bike was to not fall asleep, or not to scream too loud when something came in the opposite direction. In a car, I only had to make sure I was sitting close enough to play my fav music.

And then the universe decided that things were too peaceful in the world, (splly for my dad), and it planted a desire to Drive, in my head. Two sets of driving classes, several weeks of postponing, and a bit of freaking out later, I was finally able to drive!!

It wasn’t easy. First, I had to overcome my most basic instinct (developed over 2 decades of practice) of closing my eyes and turning my head away, whenever there was a vehicle coming in the opposite direction. Second, there was this thing of eye-hand-brain co-ordination.

I’ve heard a lot of people saying “u can never forget how to ride a cycle, even after years and years of not doing it”… I have no clue, because I’ve never even thought about riding any two-wheeler, but I can say this for sure – it isn’t the same for cars. I take a month’s break, and it’s a whole new thing all over again. The freaking out, the effort to remember to not look at the gear while changing it, and finding the stupid little seat-adjuster thing.

So one day, I’m driving, in a not-so-good mood (I’m not saying this as an excuse, promise!) and I’m turning, and see this really cool bike parked next to the road. Then I drive forward, thinking about something else, and a voice inside my head said “brake.” After a split second, it screamed “Braaaake”. Somehow, my brain was the only thing responding. Not my foot, not my hand, only the screaming in the head. “hit the bloody braaaaaakeeeeeee”…..THUD!

And then it was nasty. The owner of the bike was looking like he wanted to slap me, and there were a few cops standing there (of course! Just my luck!!!). and did I panic?? I did not!!

Just flipped my phone out, called my brother and cousin. They came, put me in an auto, and took care of it. I was back where I belonged – the backseat. No stress, no effort, no danger.

That’s when I decided. No more steering. I’ll let my ‘driving’ be what it is – a Joke…