I am a lady.. who can drive a car!

“Madam! Please park your vehicle in a straight line.” He exclaimed to my surprise. I had never heard this parking guy at my office speak to me before. I get out of the car to see how it is parked and it is (although not perfect) in line with the SUV parked besides with ample space for a person to walk between two vehicles and to open the doors. I question him, “And how much more straight?” and he answers,”It wasn’t straight, last Friday.” This answer raised many questions in my mind. Do I cause inconvenience to others by not parking straight? Do I do this always? Or was it just once? Do these people who manage parking, often discuss about my driving? Should I demote, to my two-wheeler? Although I wanted to be brave, I lost a bit of my confidence that day.

On the way back home, in the evening, I remembered how I learnt driving. Starting with just working with clutch and gear of a standstill vehicle then slowly moving to ignition of the vehicle, I was observing and learning new things every day. Every time I started the car and put it in first gear to move ahead, it would stop with a jerk. Slowly, I understood the speed in which the clutch has to be released and car has to be accelerated. I was literally mugging up the rules to use ABC (Accelerator, Break and Clutch) of the car. Driving for days in first and second gear on open grounds, it was time to accelerate my learning as well.

I went up to the third gear and was still not comfortable with the fourth one. Every time I had to change the gear, I had to look down to see in which gear the vehicle actually is. And if I had to take a turn, I was confused with changing the gear and turning the steering wheel. Working with feet and hands at a time in unison, seemed difficult. My sitting position was awkward as I wanted to see the end of the bumper and I leaned forward always. I wondered about the brake first or clutch first question. I realized, I had to practice it more and that too, on a crowded road.

Crowded roads brought in more challenges. Facing people, especially male and arrogant drivers, who felt that, woman drivers are nuisance on roads, was the first challenge. Considering all age-long myths of woman being bad drivers, people forget to appreciate a woman’s attempt to come out of their cocoon and start driving just to take one step towards independence. I am not being a feminist, but the fact is that I have hardly seen any road accident caused by mistake of a lady driver. But people are busy making fun of lady drivers and even the smallest of their mistake is considered as havoc. As always, change comes in with time and I hope a day will come when a lady driver is equally respected.

But till then let me take the liberty of driving the way I want to! Whatever way I drive, good or bad I am going to be judged based on the presumptions so let me enjoy my ride.. J