In the first quarter of this year, I have been fortunate or whatever enough to have 2 drives from point A to point B with two of my grandfathers. In February this year, I had gone to Chandigarh for a friends wedding and was all set to catch a taxi and head to my family house in sector 16. I was called and told that I need to wait at the station and that I would be getting picked up by my grandfather.
Not thinking twice about anything, since I know my dada (grandfather) drives around everywhere, I met him outside, we headed to the car, loaded it and off we were. As we drove out of the parking, I realised that my heart was making its way to my throat way too often for the 2 minutes from the parking to the main road. He has been driving on the road of Chandigarh for definitely over some 60 years so at some level, I reckon, he's driving on auto pilot! Like his mind can be tantric travelling in Timbuktu for all we know! Imagine this, my grandad, parked high up on the seat, peering over the steering wheel, both hands at 11 'o' clock and 1 'o'clock, cutting through traffic as though he is in a race, and driving between 60 - 80 without using a break. Every time we turn somewhere I can imagine him in my head going, 'wheeeeeee', 'weehheeeeee'! Missing scooter guys, rickshaw guys and cutting anything possible... Just about waiting at red lights and not looking while turning or shifting lanes or anything... That 15 minute car ride back seemed to be one of the longest drives back for me! :)
And then there is the other extreme... My mother and I recently visited family in Mumbai. We had an afternoon flight on a week day so we had my mother's aunt (nani) and uncle (nana) pick us up. Another set of grandparents. Nani was waiting for us outside while nana had gone to go and get the car. Now we called him and told him to stay in the parking and that we would come to him. In a little while we realised that nana had forgotten where he parked the car! So I left my mom and nani on the road while I went to search for my nana... He is about 6'2" so that kind of helps me spot him in the huge parking. Then I take the parking ticket and off we go looking for the car. I found the car alright, now we had to drive out to where mom and nani were. From the exit till where they were standing was less that 2 minutes in the car and I KNEW that this was going to be an interesting car ride back.
The first extreme was my dada, driving like a carefree child on a video game :) My nana on the other hand was driving like a fresh new driver who was so nervous that changing gears was a problem. :) The jerks and the car stalling was so funny, because it happened ever so often. My mother and I looked at each other and shared a chuckle. She knew my views on grandparents driving and knew exactly what I was thinking. My nana is growing old and has trouble remembering things, bless him, so it was an automatic reaction to want to drive to his own house... which is the opposite direction of his son's house, which is where we were going! :) Finally on course after realising, we end up going back towards Colaba, which took us 2.5 hours since there was a cricket match on. bumper to bumper traffic and a very jerky and stalling kinda car ride back... We arrived and were happy to be out of a moving vehicle! :)
Anyway, not to be mean or anything, I love them all, its just that I couldn't help but look at the funny side of it... the header I've given this post always reminds me of these drives and I ALWAYS chuckle! :) What cute grandparents I have... :) They need to let us start taking care of them! :)
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