Test Drive

The first time i drove a car, i felt horrible (May be 6 years back). Its crap man. It was so irritating to forget which gear i was in. Sometimes i would accidentally press the brake instead of the clutch. I also remember bending down and searching for the brake when the car was moving at 60 kmph. Seriously, i need a car like the one shown in Flintstones. After my exploits with the bike without a DL in college days, it was the turn of the car. Most of the car lessons i got was from my friends in college. At home, my cousins and bro would occasionally take the Goa registered car for a drive on Chennai roads. After all the "Just-Missed" driving, i decided to get a DL so that insurance can be claimed in case of bang. I love the RTOs, i got my DL without giving the Driving Test >:). Time passed and i forgot that i had a DL for a car, may be i forgot how to drive too. I had an opportunity to get behind the wheel in my Bro's marriage. Of course, as expected i made a mark in atleast 2 cars :D. I realized that when in reverse gear, we need not reverse our sense. In the hindsight, it was seriously funny.

Last weekend was very interesting. My friend bought a car. Since he did not have a DL, we decided that i would drive the car home from the showroom (!!! Are we mad ??). I was going to get behind the wheel after 3.5 years. Wow, Asko, you had the guts to give me the new car :D. Since i was out of practice (tell me about it, i need to know driving before i can practice), i decided to take a Test Drive. The showroom guy arranged for a Test Drive of Maruti Ritz (Diesel). It was the closest to the Swift Diesel that Asko bought. So it made perfect sense to check what i can do to a new car. We all sat in the car and managed to push the showroom guy to the backseat. He assumed I knew driving and was interested in buying Ritz. But the moment the car stalled in the first gear, the only thing he asked was "Sir, do you have a DL?". Of course, I have. But that doesn't mean i can drive :D. After a cautious start, i could find the clutch/brake/accelerator with my legs without using the eyes. That was a good enough start and after a few Km of drive i was satisfied that i could move the four-wheeled thingy without much incidents (Oh, really ?). Not to mention the stalling of the car again at the entrance (it was a slope), when the showroom guy insisted that he can take over the reins from me. Now to do some experiments with the new thingy.

We all got into the brand new Swift VDi, and decided to burn some rubber. It was a long wait to ensure that i did not bump into any of the cars inside the showroom. When i turn the ignition, some idiot would come and stop right in front of me, i would coolly turn off the engine and wait for them to move off. After some 10 mins, my friends decided that we will not be moving from the place if i decide to operate in such a safe manner. Then we decided to forget that i was driving a new car. That really helped. Slow and steady, we were on the ORR, broad road with lots of over speeding buggers around. There was one other swift which desperately wanted to overtake us. Honk! Honk Honk!!!, man. I was already at 60+ and didn't want to go beyond that because i knew that 2 KM in front of me there are a bunch of uniform guys waiting with a speed gun. The other swift wanted to show us its power and zoomed past us at more than 90 kmph. All i could do was sit there and watch the swift swiftly get into the arms of the hungry policemen >:). By the way, it was being driven by a lady :D (Male chauvinist me). Knowledge is power, its true. Had i not known about the police fellas, i would have touched 80+, which i anyways did after crossing them ;). I was not rash, its just that i didn't realize the speed. On the bike, you can feel the wind and you feel you are going fast. In a car, you just press the gas pedal (for my american friends who get confused if i say accelerator :D ), and zoom you go. It doesn't matter if its 80/100/120 or whatever rubbish. As long as you can get it to stop on time. Same applies for the bike but controlling a bike in high speeds is not easy. I am not getting into the topic of slippery roads and blah blah. where was i :-?, we cruised to our home and then both of us together clocked more than 100 KM over the weekend. I managed to scare a couple of them when they were waiting behind in the queue on a slope. I loved their expressions when the car moved backwards. As long as it doesn't touch them, they are happy, i am happy. Signing off. Vroom Vroooooooom.