Driven into a corner!

In the summer of 1997, my father gifted me a second-hand Maruti 800 car. I was posted as an Information Officer in the Punjab Civil Secretariat at Chandigarh. My wife was working as a lecturer at the Government College and our three-year-old son had just started going to a kindergarten close to her college.

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We were on cloud nine seeing a car parked on the premises of our government accommodation. Those were the days when owning a car was nothing short of a bonanza for a middle-class family like ours that had been struggling on a two-wheeler for several years to make a decent living. Neither I nor my wife knew how to drive a car.

I asked her to hone her driving skills, and the very next morning, a trainer arrived. After completing her basic training, she often managed to drive from home to the market just to boost her self-confidence. She gradually overcame the glitches.

After a fortnight of regular practice, she started driving from home to college, and on her way, also dropped and picked our son from school.

One Sunday morning, she wished to visit Nada Sahib gurdwara, followed by a movie on our way back. I agreed, and we set out.

We reached Sector 17 in the afternoon. She struggled to park her car in the busy parking lot, with my son sitting in my lap. She was constantly changing gears, driving forward and back to park between two cars.

Realising her inability to reverse the vehicle, I immediately got down to help. All my efforts to help her navigate proved to be of no help.

A senior retired defence officer, curiously looking at me, quipped, ‘Sardarji, why don’t you help her?’ I froze and wondered how to overcome the awkward situation.

Even though I didn’t know the ‘ABC’ of driving, I wanted to salvage myself from certain embarrassment. Using my presence of mind, I quickly replied, ‘Sir, the question is not of helping her; I can do it with much ease. But then, how will she ever get the confidence to tackle such traffic snarls while driving solo?’

He nodded in agreement and said, ‘You are right! I was sadly mistaken.’

Then seeing the growing nervousness on my wife’s face, he said, ‘Ma’am, you are really brave…just take a left turn and now right, and slowly reverse.’

Probably the astute signals given by him helped her to finally park the vehicle, thus saving me from discomfiture. I heaved a sigh of relief and thanked the gentleman, who later introduced himself as Colonel Sandhu. While I praised his benevolent gesture, he conversely admired me for my ‘visionary outlook’.