This is only for Indians as Car driving in India, I assume, is different from few countries like US. We follow left lane here and it seems they follow right; we have steering on the right side of the car and they have it on the left. Anyway I’m just going to tell the Dummies’ my experiences of learning how to drive a car.

Last month we three – Me, Satish Raikar, Swamy Tribhuvananda (my colleagues) thought of learning driving a car. We straight way went to well known Car Driving School in the Davangere City. Perfect Driving School is the name of the School. They have Santro at this branch and they have four branches in the city (Nice Management Strategy). Few tips who want to learn now and whoever is still in thinking mode.

1. If you are still in thinking mode, then my advise to you is “JUST GO AND REGISTER”. Do not procrastinate

2. Try to select Driving school where u know a person. This is because getting a good instructor is the most important thing while learning. By this I mean that even if it is THE BEST driving school but unluckily you have got a worst instructor, then learning car driving becomes difficult. So keep in mind that you have done little bit of research to find out who is a good instructor and not the good school. If you have got both i.e. good school and good instructor then you are lucky. Now luckily we got both.

3. Ask them what is the fees they are charging. Few details you should check here are:

a) What is the total amount they are charging?

b) Is there any installment facility? c) If you can pay in installments, then how many? or how is it designed? For ex. Our total fees, after negotiations (because we were three in number), we could reduce the fee to Rs.2600. This we were supposed to pay in three installments – First Rs.1000 while registering, second Rs.1000 after 8 days i.e. on 9th day and last balance Rs.600 we were asked to pay on the day they got us DL (Driving License) .

d) So, our fees included both Learners License as well DL (Final Driving Licence). So we thought we have made a good bargain. Indeed, it was a wonderful bargain.

e) Do not forget to choose a proper slot. We had chosen and was suggested by the driving school too that we learn from 5.00 pm to 6.00 pm which is peak period. We were really lucky to get this slot. Always choose peak periods. Because I have seen people learning during early morning hours. My suggestion to you people is that you never choose that slot as you hardly learn anything during non-peak hours.

4) After deciding upon fees and terms and conditions starts your actual learning classes. Here few things which you have to keep in mind are:

a) If your instructor is good, he will allow you to try many things and will always be supportive even if you do  mistakes.

b) Always remember, he too has got a clutch and  a brake with him. It is not single brake and single clutch car. Driving school cars are having double clutch and double brakes as he too should have control along with learner.

c) First day, if you are a first timer, you have to learn getting control over steering. I think this requires one day and atmost two days. As per our contract, the driving happens not on hourly basis but on Kilometers basis. Each day they used to teach driving till the speedometer showed 5 kms. In Bangalore, it seems, fees is charged on hourly basis and not on kilometer basis. Anyway, you should be able to get control over steering within one day. This is what you will be taught.

d) From second day onwards, concentrate on how to start the car – First insert the key, switch it on while holding the full clutch, see that the gear is in neutral and the hand-lock is down. If you move the hand lock down, the car  doesn’t move at all. It is totally locked as steering gets locked totally. All these things should happen almost simultaneously and not in exact order as written above. You can always put the gear in neutral, then switch on, hold the clutch and move the hand lever down. One more hind here is that do not have your footwear on while learning. Remove your footwear as FEEL of the three levers – Clutch, Brake and Accelerator is very much necessary. Please do not use shoes atleast for 12 days, then you can start learning driving wearing footwear, ofcourse, this again would be different but not difficult after 12 days.

e) Then holding your clutch down fully, put the first gear. Once the car is in first gear, remember that you release the clutch slowly by your left leg while you press the accelerator with the right leg. Now this should happen simultaneously, if you don’t press accelerator then car gets off. You will have to restart. Learning this would take time and will learn over a period of time and never in one or two days if you are totally new to driving.

f) Now as the car moves and picks up 20kms/hr speed, then immediately push down your clutch by your left leg and put the second gear.

e) Increase the speed of the car and if it crosses 30 kms/hr speed, put the third gear.

f) If the car next slows down to 20kms/hr speed, then come back to second gear.

g) While turning the car, hold the clutch, better if you are in second gear, but it is very much ok even if you are in third gear. Holding the clutch, turn the steering while slowly and simultaneously release your clutch and slowly pressing the accelerator.

And in the process, you will come to know about many other clues of driving a car.