How I learned to drive

Praneetha Perera

Driving my car has become my life and soul now. In 1991 one of my colleagues encouraged me to learn driving. I learned driving at a certain place in Moratuwa and got my driving licence.

I remember when I started lessons; my family was a bit disturbed, they did not expect me to finish it, because they knew what an impatient human being I was. But when I completed it and I started driving on my own, they started to believe in me. This only goes to prove that, when there is a will, there is a way.

Because I did not have money to buy a car, I kept on postponing it. When I bought a car in 1998, one of my friends helped me to take the car home, because I felt that I have forgotten almost everything about driving.

Luckily I found a driving instructor at the same place I learned driving, who came to my house and helped me brush up my driving skills again. He had to give me 10 more driving lessons. I first bought a Maruthi Manual. After using it for 11 years I changed my car because manual cars are a nuisance in traffic jams of Sri Lanka.

After about 12 years, I really felt happy that I learned driving, because I feel independent. When you know how to drive, it gives you certain strength, strength to go on. You feel smarter than before. Whenever I want to go somewhere, I take the car. I do not have to grumble.

For the sake of argument, lets say I had a husband, I have nothing to complain about if he did not help me. I know that some husbands do not like their wives learning to drive, because most of the husbands think that it would hurt their own pride, when their wives drive a car.

But it is only when a husband falls ill, he realizes the value of his wife knowing how to drive. You do not know what lies ahead; you should be prepared for anything and everything which comes your way in life.

I have not met with any serious accident and I am happy that I have never mowed down any human being so far with my vehicle.

On the day it happens I may stop driving. Driving is not the sort of thing, that once you make a mistake you can change it. You cannot say that you did not know how it happened.

You have to be very alert because you deal directly with human lives. On the other hand, where ladies are concerned, we are more careful than men when we drive.