A blog a day (#18)

DRIVING

Back when I was in school (mid 60's), my father bought a scooter - a Lambretta. 

Now this scooter wouldn't start so easily, especially during winters. It needed at least about a hundred kicks to start it. I was given the responsibility to start the scooter and keep it ready for my father to ride that to office. Kickstarting that vehicle almost everyday gave me some pain - physical and mental. Why me? Well, I was the only boy in the house and my father was nearing 50 then, so I had to do that job. I think I may have demanded an incentive to help my father. After some thought about it, he decided that he would teach me how to ride the scooter and thus began my driving lesson on a lambretta when I was about 14 or 15 years old. No license, no learner's license also. With my father behind me, I used to drive the scooter in our township in Ranchi and he would guide me as to when to apply brake, when to accelerate, when to change gears, and how to balance properly. This gave me an incentive enough to kickstart the scooter everyday for my father. Over time, my father would also ask me to drop my sister off to the main road - a distance of about 2 kms from home - so that they could take a public transport to college. I think I got a hang of riding a scooter. Never  mind the fact that I got a license only when I was 30! Now this is bound to rankle my children since after I bought a car, I didn't allow my children to drive without a license. 

I did get into some embarrassing situations whenever I gave a ride to my sisters. There was at least one occasion when a colleague or classmate of my sister asked her if I was her husband! Couldn't that chap see some resemblance between me and my sister? And did I look that old? 

Every opportunity comes with some risk, I suppose.