A good driving instructor is not one who can teach driving to those who can grasp the concepts without much difficulty but one who can teach anyone, regardless of their age, gender, health, or disability, to drive.
In fact, in my 25 years or so as a driving instructor, I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of teaching people, who, for whatever reason, think that they can never learn to drive. But, I don’t believe in scolding, pinching or stepping on the foot of students as many instructors of yore used to. I prefer to gently guide them through the process. You can’t force anyone to learn to drive, it has to come from their heart.
I learnt to drive back in 1989, mainly because I could never get autos to go where I wanted to. My husband, Madhavan Nair, was in ‘the Gulf’ and with three sons – Krishnakumar, Krishnadas and Krishnachandran – to bring up, I always had to rely on public transport. My husband himself taught me to ride a scooter.
That sense of freedom, to be able to drive yourself wherever you want to go, is priceless. Initially, I used to fall of the scooter for the slightest of reasons – clumsiness, when turning my head to smile or wave at an acquaintance, the fear of a looming bus… The key is to getting up back on the vehicle, unfazed.
When I was confident enough, I rode my scooter all the way to Alappuzha and back, with my husband riding pillion – almost an unheard of feat by a woman in those days.
Then again, back then it was not easy being a woman behind the wheel. Men would always stare and pass lewd comments. Some would be so curious that they would run behind the scooter! It took years really before all that changed. Nowadays, not many sneer at women drivers.
I started teaching others to drive six months after I got my two-wheeler license. Women would come up to me and ask me to teach them to drive and I began to do so just for the lark of it. I got my four wheeler license at the behest of my students too. Soon, I had a full-fledged driving school – Saras – on my hands. I started a beauty parlour and a tailoring unit too to cater to my students. I also qualified for the heavy vehicle license.
I keep telling my students that it’s all in the mind. If the mind wavers so does the vehicle. While I encourage the students to come first in everything, I drill into them that under no circumstances should they even think of coming first in driving. Speed kills. It’s as simple as that.
These days due to certain physical illnesses, I don’t do much of on the road instruction but instead take drivers’ education classes, teaching students basic mechanics, traffic rules and so on.
I insist that my students, particularly the women, learn how to change a flat tire. That way even if they themselves can’t do it, at least they can give instructions to others on how to do it.
I like to be always on the go and don’t think I will settle into retirement life too well. I’ve come up with a solution to all these free hours that I seem to have now – I’m raising a herd of goats. They keep me on my toes.
(A weekly column on men and women who make Thiruvananthapuram what it is)
As told to Nita Sathyendran
