What is this about?

For all of my life (of almost 30 years!) I've driven multiple types of two-wheelers (like bicycle, scooty and motorbikes with supervision) but I've never driven a car so far. The main reason is I believe that I never had a car at home and somehow never felt the need for it until I moved to Europe and started travelling.

There are so many places that are inaccessible through public transportation and driving your own car is the only way to experience them. Slowly, I realized how important it is to at least know how to drive a car and much to my friends' push, during my visit to India during Winters'23 I signed up for car driving lessons. Following are the lessons I learned every day that I attended the class.

Day 1 - 04.11.2023

So, Day 1 was all about getting yourself familiar with the basics. Here are a few things to keep in mind as soon as you sit in the driver's seat:

1. Seat Adjustment : Adjust your seat, back and forth by pulling the lever under the driver's seat so that you are comfortable. Upright the seat properly. Check that the distance between your body and steering/gear is at comfortable length depending upon your physique.
2. Mirror Adjustment : Adjust the side mirrors (outside the car) so that you can see who's coming from behind through the side and adjust the smaller mirror on the dashboard as well so you can have a better view at the back.
3. Fasten Seat Belt : The most important one, when you are comfortable in the seat, fasten the seatbelt properly across your body so that it's not too tight ot lose.
4. Turn On the Ignition : Turn on the engine by rotating the key slightly more to start the car. Adjust your feet around the race and break pedals effectively. Don't put it on yet, just stay close.
5. Parking Brake : As soon as the engine is on, pull the lever up on the side that'll set the car in motion. Don't forget to push it back to off when you're coming out. It keeps the car motionless.
6. Steering : I had a hard time figuring this one out. I was either steering the wheel too slowly or too much. My teacher asked me to make a 8 in an empty field and oh my god, Let's just say that I had never performed so poorly involving math.
7. Race Pedal : At one point, I pushed the race pedal so hard that we almost hit 60 kmph which is so not the speed to learn the car on your first day. Afterwards, I just softly put my foot on it rather than pushing it too hard.

Notes: I was indeed very nervous on the first day of driving the car and I'm not so happy about the way I handled the steering and racing situations either but hopefully I will improve in the upcoming days.

Day 2 - 06.11.2023

Day 2 was all about getting my steering wheel right. We went to the Accounts office ground and I just handled the steering wheel.

1. I tried to make 8 on the ground in as less space as possible.
2. I also took rounds about a tree without hitting anything just to test if I can steer the car correctly.
3. My mentor drew a path on the ground and asked me to keep the car on it as much as possible, thinking of it like the lanes/roads on highways
4. The instructor also placed a few bricks in a zig-zag fashion in order to correct my navigation.
5. Today was better than yesterday but still I need to do much better.

Day 03 - 07.11.2023

Day 3 was all about learning multiple new things and getting the hang of it.

1. Brakes : The first new thing I learnt today was to apply brakes by pressing my foot on brake as well as on the clutch.
2. Clutch : I learnt in order to start the car, I need to press clutch and rotate the keys and then slowly release the clutch while slowly pressing another foot on the race for the car to start moving.
3. Gears : To be able to switch into different speeds in a car we use gears to tell the engine so the car's various mechanical parts are in full co-ordination. 1st gear is for 0-20 kmph, 2nd gear is for 20-40 kmph and only these gears are useful for initial practice. I practiced pressing brakes at different points in the accounts office open ground while keeping my steering wheel on course (all with 1st gear). Another lesson that I learnt today was when to apply brakes on the road. Not in the middle, but slowly putting the car into a side, check rear-view mirrors first to check if no vehicle is right behind me and then pressing the clutch with full force first and applying the brakes slowly later.

Day 04 - 08.11.2023

Day 4 was learning about gears in theory but today was application day.

1. 1st Gear : Whenever the car is stopped, we always put the first gear as the initial speed will be in the range of 0-20 kmph. To put the car in 1st gear we first check if gear is neutral and then moving it left and forward. ("L" shaped)
2. 2nd Gear : If the speed starts to go above 20 but below 40 kmph then we switch from first to second gear. We can put directly 2nd from first by directly taking the 1st gear backwards and keeping it in the left direction itself. ("|" shaped from 1st to 2nd)

After explaining the gears, the instructor took me to drive in the traffic for the first time for the application phase. I was not pressing clutch while changing gears, I was leaving clutch way too early leading the car to switch off completely but steering was a lot better. Overall, learnt that my mind and feet co-ordination isn't that great, even though I know/remember all the things he told me but the application was way too slow for me to drive safely. One trick that worked for me towards the end of the session was to recite verbally the things that I'm going to do before I do them so as to realise my mistake quickly so I narrated something like this - "I need to take a U-turn from here so I'm checking the rear-view mirror in order to start sliding my car towards the right lane as my speed is around 30 kmph now so the car is in 2nd gear but I need to put the car in 1st gear so I'm pressing the clutch first and changing the gear, slowly pushing the brakes, turning my head to see in both directions to check if no vehicles are coming from either side, slowly leaving the clutch and steering the car quickly towards the u-turn and then changing the gear to 2nd by pressing the clutch fully as soon as u-turn is done, i have picked a lane to follow and increased my speed by leaving the clutch completely and pushing race pedal."

Day 05 - 09.11.2023

Today was a complete theory day.

Day 06 - 10.11.2023

I woke up to heavy raining outside and thought of calling the school to cancel today's class but my Dad asked me to go especially today to experience the rainy car driving.

1. When I started driving today it was only drizzling but because it had already been raining for hours so the roads were quite slippery and potholes were full of water.
2. As a first step, I cleaned the windshield by turning on the blades/wipers to clear the rain.
3. I started driving the car very slowly i.e. in 1st gear. As there were lots of potholes filled with water and in order to avoid them I took a couple of sharp turns on the road, fortunately there were no vehicles behind but I have to be careful about that by watching the rear view mirrors.
4. I also had issues leaving the clutch quickly when switching gears whereas I had to leave it slowly while keeping another foot on the race.
5. Even though the roads were slippery, I pulled the breaks slowly and my steering the car was much better today than earlier.

Overall, very good experience to drive the car in rain.

Day 07 - 11.11.2023

This day was supposed to be all about doing practice by changing gears swiftly and on slightly rough roads with lots of potholes.

1. Initially I kept driving the car around 20-30 kmph speed with 1st gear which made the car wobble very badly but when I tried to change it to 2nd gear, I forgot to press clutch completely so the gear actually didn't change.
2. While changing the gear from 1st to 2nd when I pushed the clutch rightly, I actually ended up putting the 3rd gear directly and not 2nd leading to the car wobble again.
3. After mending these mistakes, we went to the roads with potholes and navigating those were very difficult. I had to put the car in 1st gear and keep the put on clutch and race simultaneously by breaking in between.
4. I got stuck in one of the potholes where I kept putting off my foot from clutch too quickly so the car kept getting stopped (happened 3 times at the same point). When I pressed the clutch correctly, I didn't give enough race to get the car out of the pothole.
5. It was a very tough session and gave me very practical experience of driving a manual car on especially indian roads.

Day 08 - 14.11.2023

After a week of learning how to drive forward, my mentor took us back to the Accounts office ground in order to teach me how to drive in reverse direction which is mainly used to in/out of parking.

1. Gear Change : So far I've never used any gears except for 1st or 2nd, so I've to remember to put my foot on the clutch and put it in the rever gear (Neutral -> Right -> Back) before reversing the car.
2. Watch the mirrors : As I'd be driving in backward direction the only view I could have is through rear-view or side view mirrors so I have to accurately keep the watch in these mirrors of background - like any vehicles coming in, any obstructions like walls, stones etc to avoid the collision.
3. Estimation practice : Accurately estimating the target in reverse is key which will only come by watching videos, more target practicing in reverse direction and by not giving any race i.e. doing it slowly so you have control over car.

Day 09 - 15.11.2023

1. I started the car correctly and went straight ahead to BMC Chowk even though I missed to switch gears from 1st to 2nd and vice versa.
2. While driving in a narrow street, there was a slow rickshaw going in front of the car but rather than overtaking the rickshaw with a bit more speed, i stopped the car with a sudden break.
3. That break resulted in a traffic jam behind me as there was another car coming from the opposite side and i stopped in mid way. I steered the car into the corner and let the opposite vehicles pass.
4. I started the car again, put it in first gear and overtook the slow rickshaw by pressing the race a bit more quickly this time in 2nd gear and have to take care of overtaking like this in future.

Day 10 - 16.11.2023

Today was halfway through my driving course as there are going to be total 20 classes and it was 10th, my instructor wanted me to drive on the roads without him giving me instructions every minute.

1. I started the car by reversing the parked car a little by watching the traffic behind in the driver side fender mirror. Then changing the gear from reverse to first gear.
2. I drove straight for a minute and then changed the gear to second as my speed was going between 30-40 kmph. As I was driving inside decent traffic, I was still able to maintain the speed above 20 so never changed gears.
3. My mentor instructed me to go inside a narrow-ish street where the cars were parked in a zig-zag fashion. I changed the gear from 2nd to 1st and navigated through that street without pressing any race and just leaving the clutch lightly and steering it correctly.
4. Then next hurdle was to go round about a busy crossroad where even though I put the car in 1st gear properly and steered the car right but left the clutch too quickly and the car stopped in the middle. I quickly recovered and was able to cross that rightly but have to make sure that I don't panic and repeat this mistake.
5. After that everything was pretty smooth and I was able to complete the whole route in 20 minutes which was supposed to take 30 or more minutes. My mentor asked me to keep the speed in check but everything else looked okay.

Day 11 - 18.11.2023

I felt pretty comfortable driving the car in somewhat mild traffic and driving straight so I requested my driving teacher to teach me parallel parking today.

1. How to Reverse : The first thing my mentor told me was to reverse in straight direction by lightly touching clutch and not giving any race so I could control the car easily.
2. Watch the target in mirrors : My mentor placed two bricks in the middle of the ground and asked me to keep reversing in their direction by keeping an eye on all 3 mirrors (rearview mirror and left/right fender mirrors).
3. Accurate estimation is key : He kept on insisting to visualize and estimate in my head where the bricks are positioned as there would come a point where I would not be able to view the target in the mirrors and then I'd have to use my estimation power to think if its going ion right direction or not.
4. Directional Steering : One of the key problems while I was reversing was that I kept steering either in left or right direction. To correct this my mentor asked me to think of "L" shaped parking methodology. Reverse in a particular direction until the car is straight aligned in between the bricks and then just reverse in a straight direction.
5. Race Control : As I'm still learning how to drive, my mentor instructed me to always reverse in 1st gear which means to not give any race but lightly leave the clutch and put another foot on break just in case I have to stop.
6. Locking the car properly : I also learnt for the first time how to properly lock the car (by pushing the key inside and turning it off) and unlock the car (by putting one hand on the steering wheel and another hand on turning the key inside the lock to unlock)

All in all, I was pretty disappointed with my progress as I was only able to park once correctly in 30 minutes of my class but I guess I'll improve in future.

Day 12 - 19.11.2023

After yesterday's parallel parking exercise, today was a day to practice that even more.

The exercise was almost as identical as the last time. My instructor put two bricks on a cricket pitch and asked me to park the car from a particular location by just driving in reverse direction. In the first few tries, I couldn't do it by completely reversing the car and I had to move the car at the end in a bit forward direction to keep its position straight and doing the reverse from there between the bricks. In the last try, I almost did it correctly but needed some help from my instructor who nudged me into the right direction by only keeping the car in reverse gear. At last, I practiced some more in the ground by drawing 8, and taking rounds next to a big tree and keeping the car straight onto a path treating it like a lane.

Day 13 - 20.11.2023

This was probably the worst and best day ever, in terms of learning on how to drive the car. I think I could write a whole new blog post on this day alone regarding lessons learnt during driving but I'll keep it short only for the important lessons here. My instructor asked me to follow a well-practiced route of 6 kms to be covered in 30 minutes of our practice but without much guidance from him, preferably of course. I started the car correctly in first gear and quickly changed to second by keeping the car's average speed around 40 kmph on normal roads. I made the first mistake when

Day 14 - 20.11.2023

Day 15 - 20.11.2023

I was very much looking forward for this day because it kind of acted as a test before I leave for my vacation. The whole idea was to drive in the rush hour traffic during evening as the class timing was from 5:30 pm - 6:00 pm.

I started the car very nice and smoothly by reversing it a bit while looking out for traffic coming from behind. Then I pushed the car into first gear by driving slowly straight and then into second gear as the speed started to pick up. My initial speed was around 20-30 kmph with me leaving the race pedal anytime a crossing would come so the car slows down and there is no need to apply brakes. I was very scared to drive in traffic because the vehicles were appearing from nowhere and people were constantly honking me to drive fast or I truly don't know why exactly. On one of the busiest crossings, there were too many vehicles joining the line and as I was trying to save the car from the left side I almost hit the divider from the right side, all thanks to my instructor who very swiftly reacted and pushed my steering into straight direction and we just avoided the collision. Another advantage in this situation was that the speed of the car was very slow so it was very easy to control the car. This was a very crucial learning for me. After this incident, I got very scared to drive and drove even slower later on, my instructor comforted me constantly saying that these things happen and I just have to learn from them, move on and not dwell on it too much. After 5 minutes, I slowly moved on to the highway and kept my speed between 30-40 kmph, everything went smoothly on there but when I was taking a sharp left turn, a few vehicles from behind came with quite a high speed to join this lane but as I was a bit scared from the last incident, so I applied brakes nonetheless. I waited for the road to be cleared and put the first gear, slowly leaving the clutch and drove the car into the right parking spot.

Very good learning experience indeed, but really a long time left for me to be confident about my driving skills especially in high traffic areas.

After the 15th day, as I had to go to a friend's wedding so I took a break for couple of weeks, so classes to be resumed in December, 2023.