Short Story: Aisha Diaries

Nagma Sinha shares a hilarious take on the perils of driving, where it becomes less about your skills and more about the skills of the drivers around your vehicle.

About eighteen years ago, someone told me that you need confidence to drive a car in Delhi and the National Capital Region. I was an amateur then, very scared to drive on busy roads.

Whether I was getting out of a parking lot or navigating on a busy road, I would give way to all who wanted to get ahead. I was willing to wait for the roads to become peaceful and vacant until eternity.

In the working women’s hostel, where I resided, there were only about two or three people owning cars of their own. I was one of them. My group of hostel mates would rely on me on certain weekends to take them to the market or to densely populated interior areas to a photography studio. While they all sat relaxed inside the car, they were oblivious to the nervousness I went through while managing unnerving situations. They had blind trust in me.

Over the years, the manufacturing rate of cars grew higher than the fertility rate, while the area of the roads remained constant. The size of the cars grew wider and larger, eating up space for the smaller vehicles. The ‘confidence’ factor was now jaded. Over-confidence was the key to survive the ruthless era of driving.