The Pizzazzy

My poor blog has been neglected for some weeks. But hope meanwhile there have been a few sincere readers who were peeping in for updates. I have been keeping busy getting my house in order and also managing my new team at work.
 
And yes, hold your breath - working at improving my driving skills. It’s been 2 weeks that I am driving independently – to work, for shopping etc.
 
The other day I told Anand that I feel truly liberated now. I cannot describe the feeling, this one newly acquired skill has given me wings to come and go wherever I want and whenever I want. I am not dependent on his moods or his cricket schedules anymore.
 
A taste of this I got when last Saturday when he was acting his part of being a couch potato watching the back to back cricket telecasts of 2nd final with Australia and Under 19 finals in KL, I was out on the streets of Pune having a good time shopping with my sis, I also spent some time with Urjit when I went to Di’s place the same evening.
 
Now I drive to work everyday. I also put on the FM which I didn’t in the beginning as I tended to lose my concentration. I drive at my own sweet speed of 30-40 sometimes touching 50 on the highway and always stay on the left lane. On Saturday I went out for dinner with my friends and went in my car to the busy JM Road. I also, managed to drop a friend on my way back.
 
While I am at it let me also pen down some of the incidents:
 
Everyday was a struggle to get good marks from Anand, my driving teacher. Every other day when I made some basic mistake he would say 1 month or 1 week depending on how I drove that day. The time it would take for me to start driving independently. One fine morning we went for my weekend driving round. When we reached the ICICI ATM, Anand told me to drop him there and do a reverse and come back for him. While getting down the car he said “And the bonnet should be facing this side”. I was exasperated at this instruction and asked him what he meant, sounding quite offended. So, he replied that “Can’t say, you might come all the way in reverse gear”. ? This after all my driving skills at display. My teacher is hard to please. He would always remind me to display my multi tasking skill when I would fail to slow down, change gear and turn the steering wheel all at the same time. It seems quite easy now.
 
The second one is quite a learning experience for me. I brushed someone’s brand new Getz while taking a turn under the Hinjewadi fly over!! Well it was not completely my fault, since this middle aged person who was driving the car and was parallel to me suddenly cut me from the wrong side and that too at the turning. Since this patch was steep I could manage to brake just a second late. This man told me to stop and was a bit angry. I also told him firmly how he was wrong and how I was not able to brake immediately. Finally he left after advising me to drive safe. Anand believes that only lady drivers can get such leeway. 
 
Another one happened just after a few days, when I was moving out of the parking. I didn’t notice that the steering wheel was turned and when I put the car on the first gear and accelerated it was slightly angular path that the car took and the side of the car brushed one of the pillars. So, I have these scratches at two places to flaunt. Now, I make it a point to always get the wheels straight after reversing or parking and also check them beforehand.

These are my learning experiences and now the only thing to master is putting the car back in motion from its stationary position while at a gradient. The signal near Sadanand hotel on my way to office is really the tricky one. I have to wait nearby till the signal is green, but sometimes when the timing is wrong I have to manage it very skillfully. I will soon overcome this one also.

Now that I have put them down here these learning have become timeless and will stay with me forever. I have always heard men cursing lady drivers, may be there has been a trend where lady drivers panic while driving, I wish that logic and reflex always stays with every driver beyond the gender. My latest motto is always drive safe and do not over speed. 

The plan It began with me and Shilpa deciding to give Anand some shock on his birthday. Eventually the plan evolved into a fairly bigger one when we roped in Shraddha as well. Nitin and Shilpa accompanied by their four years old and Shraddha would come at midnight with a cake, snacks and candles. Anand who would be already deep in sleep and oblivious to all the excitement would be pleasantly surprised. 

 The Twist  Just a day before, Anand and my brother-in-law Sameer decided to start with their 9 to 10 p.m. Badminton session with Rahul. This had been in the pipeline for sometime and when it finally happened the timing couldn’t have been worse. After the badminton round and with the adrenalin rush it was way past 12 when finally Anand went to bed. And I was worried that our plan would flop if this repeated the next day. The counter plan  The next morning I roped in Sameer also and told him to make some excuse and not go for the Badminton that night. I was avoiding telling Aai and Sameer fearing that they might give away the plan by mistake. When Sameer was all smiles after hearing my plan I wasn’t sure he wouldn’t do exactly what I feared. So, I roped in Rahul. I thought that if the host only changed the badminton plans then it will not raise any doubts. 

 The excitement  We were pretty excited about the whole plan and from office also we were visualizing Anand’s irritation and shock. All three of us I, Shilpa and Shraddha were looking forward to the night. Meanwhile Anand got the pre-planned call from Rahul also. Almost caught  As soon as Anand’s plan got cancelled he called me. And I said “Oh so Rahul called you?” Immediately Anand’s antenna was at work and he smelled something fishy. He asked me if it was me who told Rahul to cancel it. I said “why would I do that” and I sweet talked him into some other topic.  

The wait  I made Anand go to sleep at 10 only after an early dinner. And as usual Anand immediately fell asleep. I did my usual reading till 11 and since there was still one more hour to go I put my cell on vibrator and closed my eyes not intending to sleep off. I was holding the cell so that I don’t disturb Anand and wake him up. And I drifted off to sleep and when I got up after some time I went out of the room deciding to wait for our friends. The second twist  As I came out of the room with my eyes still blur from sleep, I noticed Shraddha and Shilpa already in the kitchen getting things ready. I immediately joined them in lighting the candles and also setting the environment. We put the night lights on, and also placed candles on a few candle stands. Now that we were all set I went to wake Anand up.   

The shock   I gave a light tap on his hand – this is how he likes to be woken up from sleep – and I simply told him there was someone at the door. So, he got up groggy from the sleep and came out of the room. We all started singing in chorus and he took in the scene. With shock and confusion on his face he smiled and said “Thank you Thank you!!” More fun  After all the wished we told him to cut the cake. He placed himself nicely in front of the cake and blew away the candles and just before he could cut the cake he looked away, and the magic candles which Shraddha had got were lit again. Since he was still in a state of slumber he was confused and blew them off again. And after doing this for a few times he realized that we were having a nice time at his expense and removed the candles completely. And we all carried on the party for a while and soon after said goodbye to our friends and retired for the night. 

The next day  We relived the moments from the planning to the execution enjoying every moment to various group of friends and family. Aai who slept soundly through the whole party was also impressed by the whole thing. This happened to Anand for the first time and he actually enjoyed every bit of it. Guys next time, we have to think of something more exciting. That evening  Anand was really lucky this year. The same evening when Daddy arrived from Mumbai and we all went out to Season’s for dinner, somehow the staff realized that we were celebrating Anand’s birthday and they came up with a complementary cake for him to cut and it was somewhere around 11:00, so the day began and ended with cutting of cake. It was a great day, half of which, we spent in Home Town mentally building a dream house.