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| Sunday, 05 March 2006 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Chamitha learns to drive: L of a time by Chamitha Kuruppu
As and when time permitted, my busy husband tried to accompany me to a movie or an exhibition. We couldn't do more than one trip for a month because...well.. because he was busy. Finally he had come up with the most miraculous decision of his or rather our life. "Why don't you learn to drive. Go with your friends I'll give you the vehicle,". I knew nothing about driving BUT I was sure about one thing, my husband was an aggressive teacher. However, my love to hit the road was greater than any obstacle that I might confront. So I decided to take the challenge. Within a couple of days he announced that he was ready to take me for my first driving lesson. The day ended up in utter disappointment. I couldn't learn anything more than adjusting my seat (hmmmmm), buckle my belt PROPERLY and starting the vehicle in one go. Day two went on well. By the end of the day, despite driving, I had learnt to distinguish sarcasm from instructions - ignore the former and respond to the latter. "STOP...S...T..O...P....STOP" "RIGHT MEANS RIGHT", "Always respond to the traffic lights", "Can't you see there are other vehicles on the road", "You almost knocked down that person", "Wait till you meet with an accident,", "Watch me when I drive,"........they kept echoing in my ears even when I was asleep.
But the next session was no better than the previous ones. "What's the hurry? drive slowly", "Can you please speed up a little, we don't have the entire day", "If you ever want to learn driving you had better do it the way I ask you to do", "stop..turn right..... you forgot signal lights...bus....bus....are you kidding me?". He SAID I was good! Amidst the confusion, I decide, I don't need to tolerate any of his tormenting driving lessons and sarcasm about women drivers. I stand up and hit the brake -- the vehicle stops in the middle of Parliament Road (Don't forget this was on a weekday around 8 a.m amidst heavy traffic jam) -- I see my husband's face red as ever, followed by hundreds of angry drivers behind, tooting their horns. "If you want me to drive, let me do it my way. If you continue to act like that I will never drive," I slam the door and hop into the back seat. Still in shock -- at a loss for words -- my husband is compelled to shift to the driver's seat. Until we reach office none of us talk. My mind ran back to all those incidents where my male colleagues claimed there should always be a woman driver (sure ekata ganiyek wenna ethi) whenever they were driving behind a slow vehicle, or were caught in a traffic jam. I tried to recall all those humorous e-mails and jokes about women drivers. Once I reached office, I decided to share my bitter driving experience. To my surprise, I figure out that most female friends had dealt with similar ordeals. Many had given up driving failing to tolerate 'male perception' about women drivers. By the way.. I was not the only person to stop the vehicle in the middle of the road amidst traffic, two of my colleagues had done the same, and one had all the guts to hop into a bus to find her way back. Then, I think about my friend whose vehicle suddenly stopped in the middle of the Townhall roundabout. Initially, she panicked. She knew nothing about vehicle maintenance. After making several phone calls she got out of the vehicle and looked innocently at the drivers passing by. You know how many people came to her rescue. She couldn't even remember, because there were so many. So, we keep our handbags on our laps while driving, some of us stick to one side of the road because we don't like to worry checking both sides of the road, we don't feel threatened when other vehicles overtake, it's true that wipers could bother us when driving, some of us may even accidently toot horns at the traffic cop in the middle of the road...But does it mean women can't drive? Have you ever come across a woman reprimanding other drivers? Ever seen two vehicles (women in driving seats) stop face-to-face refusing to move her vehicle until the other person did it first? Check with the Traffic Police how many women drivers are responsible for road accidents. Nobody instructs us on what to cook for lunch. We decide what the entire family should wear for the next get-together. If we don't alert most men, they cannot figure out when they need the next hair cut. It's women who enlighten men that only Michael Jackson who wears white socks and wearing belts that go several rounds around the waist is intolerable. Would you still believe women can't handle four wheels and a single man inside it?. |
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| Produced by Lake House |
I was a spinster, driven around by male admirers. Therefore, transport
never became an issue. But alas! marriage suddenly made a twist in my life.
Forget about movies and excursions, I had to beg for permission to do my own
shopping. And how much I missed my male colleagues -- who were at my beck
and call -- burning their fuel just to please me - willingly driving under
the hot sun to wherever I felt like going. 
Until one day, I overheard my husband commending his wife's driving, I
was in the belief my driving was average. "She is pretty good, It only took
her two weeks and she is very much confident in her driving," that coming
from my husband was the biggest achievement in my life. 
