Thoughts of a Rambler

Driving in chennai was never a problem for me. This is where i had learnt driving and once you can drive here, no other road, anywhere in the world can be a challenge for you. Yesterday, i took out our car in an attempt to prove that i was not NRIsed like others and can still manage to drive around in Chennai traffic.

The start itself proved to be embarrassing, as i tried to shift to reverse gear with my right foot firmly planted on the brake pedal. I couldn’t engage the gear. I complained to myself that the car might have a problem and that i had to have the gear box checked. A little later, after almost breaking the gear shaft, i realised that this was not an automatic-shift car and that my left foot, which was comfortably sleeping in a corner, had to be used on the clutch pedal. I looked around and luckily didn’t find anyone staring at my inability to take the car out of our parking space.

After few minutes of hardship, i managed to leave our colony and entered the big bad outside world. I realised that i was diligently following the unwritten laws of NRI driving in Chennai, the moment i faced a T-junction and was dutifully waiting for an opportunity for the traffic to clear up so that i could enter the road. A long line of vehicles was building up behind me and it was only a wait of few minutes that infuriated the person behind me and he started composing threatening tunes on his car-horn. Why don’t people understand that it takes few hours of driving around for us to become accustomed to the intricacies of the chaos here!