Driving Ms R

Looking back at the lighter moments....
When I joined for the driving course, V told me: 'There is a cafe selling snacks, eat something if you are hungry.' I discovered veg and chicken samosas, sandwiches, burgers etc at the ladies cafe run by a Pak lady. The samosas were good, and I packed a couple of them occasionally for the kids.  In fact, I think that became my main intention about going for the class.
And after each failed attempt at parking or on the road, I gave V a sheepish smile or pretended nothing had happened. All he would say was a modified version of the dialogue from the Malayalam film Yodha: 'Enthiye ente mwal thottu thunnam paadi vannittu?'
Despite the financial crunch, he never said anything and kept up hope I would make it the next time. Converting into Indian Rupees, it seemed a fortune. Or enough to buy a second hand car here. But of course, a car is not the same as the skill to drive it.
And then there were bus drivers who either sympathised or asked in wonder: Madam, havent you finished yet? When I told V that I was feeling embarassed, he suggested that I tell them that I had got a job at the institute.
However, I felt I would have to rent a flat in Qusais, the area I learnt to drive. Because I knew it like the back of my palm by the time I finished. The rest of Dubai-Sharjah is like a maze to me - all roads and areas look the same except for some major landmarks. Back in India, each house, each tree is a landmark and you could find your way comfortably.
Then there was old lady Farhat, who chastised me in Hindi/Urdu for making a blunder - like taking to the left of the road when she asked me to go left. The fact that one has to keep to the right of the road was something that I occasionally forgot. having spent four decades in a country where we kept to the left of the road. "For a moment I thought I was in India, ma'am', I said, looking for an excuse. "Forget about India, you are in Dubai now," she screamed in exasperation.
p.s. I am taking tentative steps at driving on my own (without the instructor and her brake) in V's car every Friday. It gives him a headache watching me drive and with impatient drivers honking behind!