Drive-o-phobia

Guru, in his late twenties, small and stout, non-stop talkative person is one of the core members of my team, inseparable from the group. It’s all lively and active when he’s around and no dearth for jokes and humor. A person who believes in today and lives for today.

He knew driving and had mastered it recently just after I had done the same. For me driving was just like a fish taking to the waters, picking up the skills instantaneously. He was through the basics and was at peace driving in the city to an extent.

As a team member, we have always seen him being confident and with loads of ‘let’s do it attitude’ whatever be the situation or the challenge, as a team we have relished many challenges together as they have come.

With my driving skills now fit for the highway, we embarked on a long road journey through the nook and corner of the state, day and night, traveling through the wonderful countryside, braving the rains and cold and soaking in the clean pure air and the majestic sights that we were to witness.

As Guru knew driving, he was keen to help me out with the part and there lay our and his biggest challenge in accomplishing that as we soon realized. Behind the steering wheel, his confident voice started to jarrr, sweat brows visible on the always ‘cool as a cucumber’ face, the never stopping talkative throat became dry, slight shiver in the hands, agile reflexes getting mixed up, we soon realized this was some ‘block’ or rather ‘a fear’ enveloping him while driving on the highway.

We were a little taken aback by this, but recovering soon, we knew he had all the abilities to do it, probably just needed to come out of his shell, throw the fears away and be confident. This was a challenge for him to prove himself and a challenge for us to help our friend accomplish it and we were very sure it could be done and all of us together could soak in the alive is awesome moments.

(misty dawn break well before the ghats)

We stopped instantaneously, offered him water, spoke to him distracting from the topic, tried infusing him with confidence, egged him on and resumed our journey when he was ready. The terrain had now turned into ghats (hair pin bends and zig-zags) and the roads filled with good number of potholes, the challenge ahead of us had doubled!

He showed no signs of giving up and we made our progress slowly and steadily negotiating the potholes and the heavy truck traffic on the road. He was tense and so were we when we approached the passing trucks closer than expected but our man held his nerve and there were shouts of oohs! aahs! from the backseat, we were relishing the challenge.

Always egging him on and giving him tips to stay calm and guiding him in averting the traffic/potholes and constantly encouraging him, we were making him feel comfortable and relaxed and he was responding well trying to outdo his fears and drive confidently.

Slowly but steadily, he showed signs of coming back to his self, appearing much more relaxed than ever and the last stretch of ghats were covered in a jiffy. Soon, we stopped after the ghats were conquered and instantly he let out a wild scream, and with exchange of hi-fi, we knew his fears were now out and he would be much more confident driving in the future. A challenge for him, a challenge for us, both ending successful relishing the stiff challenge no end and soaking ourselves in the alive is awesome moments of glory and success.

(waterfalls break on the way...)

Note: Drive safe, be safe!
Speed thrills but kills!

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