Eshwar Nag

I am 30 years old, and I just learnt to drive a car. It has been my goal to learn car driving for many years now, but I haven’t prioritised it at all. I have generally not been interested in a driving vehicles. I have always seen them as just a tool to go from one place to another. I was late to driving a bicycle as a child, I was late to driving a scooter too, and finally now I am late to driving a car as well. This year, with my wife being pregnant and it gave me the necessary motivation to prioritise this goal and get it done. 

It wasn’t easy in the beginning. I think it’s easier to learn to drive a car when you are younger and a lot more difficult as you get older. When you are older, you over think a lot and that’s definitely not good when you want to learn driving. The ten hours of driving classes that I went to, I was overwhelmed and terrified for the most of it. But I somehow forced myself to complete the training and pass the driving test. 

The class that I went to was teaching driving only with a manual transmission and thats why I was overwhelmed, but later after passing the driving test, I bought a car with automatic transmission that greatly reduced the complexity of driving. After just a few hours of driving an automatic, I felt super confident that I could do it and I was no longer overwhelmed by it. I am super happy with my decision to buy an automatic instead of manual transmission. Looking back after several weeks now, I think since it was the beginning, I was probably just overwhelmed, but if I had stuck with it, I could have managed a manual transmission as my daily driver as well. But I am sure I wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much.

As a person who was not very interested in driving vehicles, both two and four wheelers, I think I have really liked the experience of driving a car. Driving a car is much more comfortable and enjoyable. Having access to music, phone calls and being always sheltered from sun and rain is a big advantage. Driving a car is also the best option to go far distances. After several weeks of driving, I think I am a fan and I have started to wonder how I ever lived without this option at all !