First Day, First Class

You might be wondering that I've just finished my 4 years of engineering and what is this first class that I'm going to talk about. Well, I'm not going to talk about any of my college classes. I'm trying to account my experience on the first day of my driving classes.

My mom had been trying to convince me to join those classes for several days. She after all, like any mother, wants her son to get away from his computer, stop wasting time on the Internet and see the outside world. She also had another valid reason, this would be the last of the holidays I would get before I start working. So, I agreed to join for the class at a driving school which wasn't very far from my house. I went with my dad to that school and enquired for details. I and my dad knew the person in charge of the driving school from before, so he was co-operative and informative enough. We decided about the price and I asked about the batches.

He said there are batches one at 7:30am and another 10am and asked me choose to whichever is convenient.

I was thinking, I get up from bed only at 10 am and running to the driving class is definitely not the first thing I wanna do in the morning(Yes, in college I used to run for 8'o clock classes, but then I had no choice).

I asked for a batch at around 2:30 pm, just after lunch hours and he said that is available too and I happily agreed to take that batch.

We paid him the advance amount, he said he'll take care of the LL, DL and various other formalities and asked me to start from the coming week.

The first day of the course had arrived and I was quiet eager. I went to the school with some expectations, only to realise that they were a bit too much. I went there few minutes before time, didn't want to be late on the very first day. The instructor came, had a look at the card i was given on the other day of enrollment. I asked him if the LL was ready, he said it wasn't but it was OK. Cool, so I'm gonna go around the city without a learner's license. Not a big deal I thought as I'm gonna be in a vehicle that has a huge board saying 'L' on the top(that board also doubles as a huge advertising banner for the school). Also this instructor will be with me, so nothing to worry.

We got into the car and I was expecting him to give some basic instructions, some traffic guidelines or some tips on how to handle the car or what route we will be taking. But he did not utter a single a word. He didn't even tell me which was the gas pedal and which was the clutch(Hey, who knows i might have just landed from the US or any other left-hand driving country and I might confuse the gas pedal for the clutch and vice-verse! How can he presume I know all that). Rather, he was a bit busy adjusting his earphones through which he was listening to FM radio on his cellphone! I waited for few more seconds anticipating him to say something and he opened his mouth to say

"Start madappa, gaddi automaticagi start agalla" (Start the car dude, it wont start by itself ! ).

Oh yeah, I didn't know that all my life, thanks a lot Mr. Instructor, I told to myself.

I started the engine and he just gave one line of instruction, that the clutch, brake and the gas pedals are very sensitive so I should be very slow and gentle in operating them.

OK, I said and we got into gear and started moving. Barely had I touched 20Kph and he said slow down. He shifted the gear for me and we continued. Again, i had hardly crossed 20ks and he shouted

"slowaagi hogappa!" (Go SLOW!).

That was when I realised he doesn't want me to go beyond 20 and I should keep constant at that. I expected him to lay the ground rules in the beginning, tell me that I'm not supposed to go beyond 20, but he didn't. How on earth will I come to know at what speed to drive without him telling me.

Ok, so one rule learnt the hard way. Now the task was to drive the vehicle in a straight line. The vehicle didn't have it's wheels balanced and aligned properly as a result it used to drift to the left. So I was constantly working the steering wheel(at that time I was still figuring out the sensitivity of the steering wheel) to the right to get the car in a straight line. This looked funny to him and asked me

"Steeringna yaake dance aadistha iddiya?" (why are you making the steering wheel dance like that?)

I got pissed at the way he said and told him the car is drifting to the left, see it for yourself and took my hands off the steering wheel. He too noticed the drift and said that the wheel alignment hasn't been done for months. So the fault is with your vehicle don't blame me, I said. I thought maybe his FM music made it look like I was dancing the steering wheel.

We continued again and he asked me to take a right here and a left there and a U-turn there, all along listening to his FM music and sometimes even singing the lyrics out loudly, like a motormouth. Before long, my half-hour time slot had come to end and we were back at same place where we had started. He then took out his small notebook which was the attendance register and logged my name. He took my card and was about to sign there. I was hoping he would tell me my mistakes or give me any general feedback, but nothing came from his side. I gave up on him and thought that's it for my first class and was about to leave and at that time he said something.

"GuruDakshine kodappa" (Give me my GuruDakshine)

"What??!" I said.

"GuruDakshine kodappa. Kannada baruthe thane?"(Give me my GuruDakshine. You do understand Kannada, right?)

This was something I didn't anticipate and told him this is after all the first class, I'll give you your dakshine on the last day of the course. He didn't accept my excuse and asked again! I understood this fellow wouldn't let me go without giving him something, so started to look in my pockets and luckily I had got my wallet along. I opened it and was happy to see quiet a few notes of different denominations( you cant give him a 500 note in that situation and ask for change, can u?) I gave him one of the many notes with Gandhi's photo and next thing I see on his face is a huge smile. He immediately started being nice to me and asking me whether I ride bikes. I said yes, and he said that's the reason you are so hard on the gas pedal as you are used to braking very hard on bikes. I said "ah, yes yes" as I saw a point in what he said. He then said don't worry, you can get over it and I'l train you properly. I then said good bye and we'll meet tomorrow at the same time.

I started walking back forming my opinion about the instructor. I expected him to give basic instructions at the first and he didn't. I expected his full attention when I was driving, but no he was happily enjoying music on his FM radio. I expected some feedback in the end and I didn't get it. None of these let me down as much as the audacity and his adamant nature with which he demanded that "gurudakshine". What I believe is, gurudakshine is given by the student willfully to the teacher, in a way of repaying for the great favour of imparting knowledge to him. The wish to offer gurudakshine should come naturally to the student and the teacher can only ask but shouldn't enforce it upon him. Even Dronacharya of MahaBharatha wouldn't have demanded gurudakshine from Ekalavya if not for Arjuna getting worried to see a potential competitor in Ekalavya and holding him responsible for that. But in today's world you can't expect high standards from everyone. That instructor dude after all does his job just for a living and I can't be so judgemental about him or about what he asked for. If he does his duty and I learn thoroughly by the end of the course, that's all is asked for.

PS: Yes, this is my first post and thanks for reading!! Comments and feedback would be really appreciated.