8a 04/Dec So it’s 10 PM once again. Today is the second of December, 2025. We are leaving for a practice drive for Nisha. The objective is obviously the pub she’s going to on Saturday. In any case, she’s going to be around in Bengal for the next 30 days. So, after some expertise in car driving, we should commence lessons in scooter as well.Nisha, the wiper blade has to be put on. I don’t know how to do that. So, why don’t you stop the car at a particular place and understand how the wiper blade works? Stop it. Okay. The left side, left side. Left side, that is for lights. So practice with the left side and practice with the right side. Right side is for the wiper blade. Right. So this comes in three speeds. Try all the three speeds now. Right. Got it? So you are able to understand the three speeds? Okay. Now, if you pull it towards you—high beam. No, no, no. I’m talking only about the right. So right is only for the wiper blade. So if you pull it towards you, water will splash there. Okay. Can you try that please? And it’s supposed to splash, but there is no water there. If you—oh, it’s leaving. If you pull—turn it. Yeah. Turn the notch, the back will fold. Got it? Fold. Okay.Do you know about the lift? Yes. The lift is for? Yeah. That’s called momentary beam. The permanent beam is this. Back. This, the green is the normal one which is on city roads. Yes. So you push it. Push, not pull. Push it. That is for highways. Yes. Okay. This is normal. But momentarily, if you want to show the high beam flash at somebody, then you pull it towards you. Okay. Understood this? Okay? Yes. And what does this do? One, two. Got it? Yes. Okay, fantastic.So we are going towards Dasavanagar Main Road. So Randu Mallya and his wife were taking a walk. Just spotted them and said hi to them. Vandana, who is in this veera, has called us for langar on Sunday. Langar is the food at the gurudwara. Her aunt passed away last week. So they are doing some prayers and a langar. She has called us on Sunday, but unfortunately, I don’t think myself or Amma will be able to make it because we are planning to go to Jain Farms. We didn’t even go. So, Jain Farms, because Amma has got some ideas with respect to Jain Farms. I think you know about it. So we just want to put the place under lock and key. There are three vagabonds who are staying there, the princes of the village. So, Savitri, Ravi and his younger brother, Ganesh. So we want to send them out of the place and if possible, keep the door locked. But let’s see how it goes. I spoke to Ganesh today again. He requested for a week more time, but I have not given him that time. So let’s see how it works.Today we are on a Tuesday. So we are on a main road now and please focus on the driving. I might be talking something irrelevant which is other than the roads or the driving. Okay? Right. But do not worry about all that. Just keep talking. I’m actually very bored so I am keeping myself busy by recording something and also enabling it to be transcribed.There is an AC which you have learned to operate. Oreo is sitting with us in the car and he is in the back seat. Nicely licking its claws as usual. Oreo, leave! It’s okay. No, it’s not okay. It’s fine. It’s fine. So you can’t prevent that during the night, yeah? Good.So we managed to come up the ramp and look on both left and right when you are taking and you’re going Dasavanagar Main Road. To go back in history, this is how we started your driving lesson for the first time. Through this Dasavanagar Main Road. So Shell petrol pump is open and Oreo is nicely licking out the window. Line splashes closed. This particular point is where you nudged a cycle or a pedestrian. Pedestrian. One of these two.Chaitanya Global School. We have biscuit ovens and a samosa, paratha place which will come after this. Along with Tata Sugar. So both sides of the house, there is a fair amount of activity. At 10:05, many shops are still open, which is a good thing. So there is huge lighting by the grapefruits shop. Nisha has effortlessly moved into the third gear. And she will use the clutch to cross the hump in spite of being in the third gear, which is fine for me. She’s got experience, it’s fine. We do not want to see her stumbling like last time or yesterday when she had to do at least three or four tries before she climbed the ramp at Bhuvaneshwari Hill. So this is slightly abrupt. You need to be gently moving towards the—high speed. Yeah, high speed.The good part is that unlike me, Nisha uses both the left and the right rearview mirror, so probably that makes me a worse driver than Nisha, because I only look at the central rearview mirror. So much so that when I go on highway trips, I push both the left and the right mirrors inside. So, Nisha has been a good student of her driving and uses all the mirrors effectively.We have crossed the temple. In fact, this temple is a big landmark for me since immediately after that you take a right to go towards Ramesh Nagar, and that straight road through curves and hot wheels leads me directly to the HAL Mutt, where pre-marriage ceremonies get performed. So this is a two-kilometer road compared to 4.5 kilometers through the main road, which is through G.M. Pahlia and then Surjan Das Road, which was the route I had been using till now.There is a blue bus which I think is headed towards Vasu Nagar Bus Stand. I still remember this DRBO road on the left where both the children learned driving. We spent quite a bit of time at the car park at this time of the night. There would have been only three or four cars totally parked. So we did a lot of exercise there, going between the pillars, basically the iron pillars. The road is looking nice and bright. I’m in fourth gear now. And as Nisha says, she has moved into her fourth gear.At the junction, she needs to be towards the right, halt there and wait for the signal. And then gently she needs to take a turn towards Old Airport Road, which should be a fast road. It need not be necessarily busy at this time of the day, but vehicles will be traveling a bit fast. And then Nisha would need to match up to that speed. So we are almost at that junction. She continues to see vehicles on the left and right. I hope she does not get too much bothered by my running commentary. I don’t want her to lose any distraction. So there is the green light which is there and she can go. She can proceed, but she needs to do it gently because vehicles will be coming. They would not be too bothered about the signal at this point of time. There’s a car here. Yeah. So she spotted it on time and this sort of gives her an experience. She knows that there will be vehicles on the right. So one always needs to be mindful of… It comes unconsciously after some time.See today, she might feel that there is a lot of effort which is required towards looking at the vehicles on the left or the right, looking at the road ahead. So let’s say I deliver a hundred instructions to her on the road. So today it might seem overwhelming to her and she will be asking herself, “What is this driving all about? Why is it so stressful?” But the good news, the happy part is that once experience kicks in, all this becomes automatic. It’s like, you don’t think while you’re walking, right? But I’m sure that your baby brain took so much time to process the act of walking when you were a small child. The same way, just looking at the left and right, looking at the indicators, changing the gear, coordinating the leg movement between the clutch and the accelerator. All that will happen automatically. You would not even need to think about it. You can just be listening to music and talking to people in the car.As I always tell Nisha and Niharika this lesson, there are four levels of competency which an individual needs. Four quadrants, as we say. First is unconscious incompetence. You know that you are incompetent, but it’s unconscious because you don’t know what that incompetence is all about. You have no idea what is driving all about. I think you need to put the wiper blade just once or twice, because there are small drizzles which are falling. Just once and we can take them away. So, I’ll do it. Yeah. It’s okay. Need not do just because I’m telling you.So, there’s a slow moving truck. So, if you look at the rear view mirror and if you feel that… Okay, do it carefully. I am not… She crossed that slow moving truck. She looked at the left side rear view mirror, determined that no vehicles were coming close behind her and crossed that accident. Now, she needs to go under the underpass. HHL Mutt is on the right. Where myself and Mahaa had gone just last week for lunch. We were not able to make it there, but three of my relatives also came. So, we are in the underpass. Very smoothly Nisha has taken it to the main road now.On the left is this bus stand for the airport bus, route number six. Or is it four? Yeah, I think it is route number four. It starts its journey here. I have dropped Niharika once here when she had gone to Bangkok. Sorry, she didn’t go to Bangkok. She went to Phuket with her friends. Phuket and Krabi is where she went. So, Nisha has managed to sync in spite of all the fast moving cars on the left and right which are parking like ants on every side. Perhaps she needs to use her wide road radius. She did it as I was talking about it. Maybe she can just keep it on the slow moving thing, which every 20 seconds, I think it washes the windshield.Today’s driving perhaps would be slightly easier because we will not be encountering the kind of traffic that we saw yesterday. But we can’t do the same route again and again, right? It will be very boring. But this route is a bit longer so perhaps that compensates for the lack of challenge over here.There is this Motherhood or Cloud Nine hospital which we have just passed. There is a junction which comes in a few seconds from now and Nisha needs to gently stop there in case… I can see the green light here but she needs to be mindful also because it’s been on for a long time and I don’t want her to go very fast and then suddenly get stuck. Car crashes across the green light comfortably. I always keep this petrol bunk as a landmark also because it’s one of the few bunks which uses difficult English words like ingress and egress for to go in and out. I don’t see that term being used anywhere else.Oh. The fence in the middle of the road is being watered. I have a feeling that the watering is happening, private party hired by maybe Mipah Hospital or Leela or somebody else. I don’t think government would be doing this watering of the fence. And I’m also thinking why one needs to water when you know that you got rains coming in. Maybe they need to do it as a floor.Yeah, so artists on the right. We have come to the pedestrian over bridge, right in front of Manipal Hospital. This hospital, at one point of time, used to be my second home. I was just counting. I have actually stayed in the hospital, in their sixth floor waiting room there, and slept there for at least 40 or 50 nights, maybe 40 nights. Let me not try to exaggerate. So that’s how it has been.Lila is on the right. Sterling Max Hotel. Intel used to own this building, but I think they sold it at a good price to someone else. Oh, and I can see a huge fence being put up around. I have no idea what or who is coming in this place. Nisha is going on a straight line. You need to know, Nisha, that at the signal on the slightly, on the left hand side is an over bridge. You remember that, right? Okay. You’ll see it for the 100th time now and you’ll remember it. It’s okay. Since you’re driving, you’ll remember it better. I had another junction that goes to . That you remember? Okay. I need to take the bridge now. I remember. Yeah, you remember. Fantastic. Great.Now, we came to Nisha. She spotted the pub on the right. Big Picture Pub. I remember she mentioning that she had wanted to go to this pub. I’m not sure whether she went or not. I think, yeah, she went to that place once. Oh my god. No. But you mentioned about the Big Picture Pub, right? So, the landmark for taking the bridge is you can see that sign board. So after the sign board, you can see some vehicles now. You can come to the center of the road. Gently come to the center of the road. Yeah. Remove the left indicator because you’re anyway not going left. You can see the cars which are anyway climbing up the hill. So let’s, that may cue for you to also do the same. Since it’s up, perhaps it would be a good idea to move to the second gear and gain some… Okay. Anyway, she’s the driver and she’s the expert. So she decided to go on the third gear itself up the ramp. And there’ll be a fair bit of a curve here. So we are going now all the way to . Okay. And at take the right. It crosses through MPs and goes all the way to . The lights of Bengaluru can be seen in the distance.There is a Dash Square from where I think are about a couple of furniture pieces. So it curves. So like what I told, since the other road was running on that side, you need to be mindful of fast moving vehicles there. So this is the other furniture shop on the left. We bought, Stanley, yeah. We bought, I think, the bed from Stanley or the mattress. The bed, yeah. So the red light is there. Gently she needs to stop in the middle of the road. Not too much on the left as well, because, yeah, there is this truck which has come close to her. It’s a truck whose smell I hate. I keep seeing these trucks every now and then. They have just deposited a whole load of chickens. As I’m talking now, I’m sure some of the chickens are being slaughtered for tomorrow morning’s breakfast. And onward, sending to various houses through Freshly Home. Our dear sitting in the back is a proud eater of those chickens.I’m too close right now, right? No, no, you’re not too close. It’s okay. No problem. So, Nisha is worried about her being sandwiched between this truck and the car. So she needs to go ahead and, over the next one kilometer, she needs to gently slide on the right so that she’s able to take a right turn at . And, yeah, so the green signal is about to come in. Let the vehicles go. There is no hurry at all. Yeah. So, oh, that’s a Merck, it’s not a Lenovo. It’s a SUV Mercedes.The famous cult store. Cult gym. Where Nishant had done, I think, few days of training many, many years back. So Citibank used to have its operation here on the right. There was an Indian car center here. Unfortunately, Citibank does not exist anymore in India. So myself and Ajay had come only last week. Slowly, slowly. Yeah. We had come last week to 100 feet road. We went to IT on it, to purchase accessories for her new mobile phone. Which is gonna be mine. Sorry? Which is going to be 100 feet road. Which is going to be Nisha’s in a short while. Yes, that’s right. So she’s gonna buy two phones, just like Naveri princess. Oh, how do you know? You already told me that Naveri Princess has got a Google Pixel as well as an iPhone.So Watsons on the left. I think we are about to reach Bharati Jalpav. It’s fine. We should use the right indicator. Yeah. Right. There are at least two, three vehicles ahead. As I can see, which are proceeding on the right. So after she goes to Bharati Jalpav, it’s a straight road corner, till she reaches Jeevan Bhima Nagar end. So, I think this guy is taking a U-turn. So we need to give him that space and also wait. And slowly you need to nudge your way to the right, after the auto. And only if you get a gap. Yes, you got the gap now. Beautiful gap you got and Bharati Jalpav it is.Nisha might not remember but because it was our growing up years and she need not have to really worry about this place. But this road was our go-to place for me to drop the kids. I still remember that end of this road, when Nisha was in the opposite building, I took photos of her when she had graduated from her pre-KG. I still remember she had that graduation cap on her. That’s a very treasured, treasured photo of mine which I have stored in my computer. So there used to be this house opposite the school where there was a huge dog and children used to play with that…It’s a one way, but it is one right. You can complain against the way but that’s how it is. This is India. So, you also need to be mindful of people. Yesterday, for example, Nisha, in case you are able to, because you are going to concentrate, there was a huge accident which happened in Tamil Nadu yesterday. Fifteen people were killed, when two buses collided against each other. Oh. It was in a place called Sivalagunai, near Madurai in Tamil Nadu. It was a national highway and one of the buses was coming in the opposite direction in the middle of the night, and they just collided head on. How the hell could that bus driver come the other side? It’s India. And there was some, I think, visibility also was a problem because of rains in Tamil Nadu. I don’t know whether you know, the Cyclone Hita or whatever its name is, it’s causing a lot of havoc in Chennai. Oh. Chennai is… Had been inundated day before yesterday. It’s eased out now, but Sri Lanka is completely devastated. I don’t know whether you have seen the news or you know about it. But thousand people have been killed in Sri Lanka. And in many of the places which we have visited, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, and Winthota, we have seen widespread devastation and very sorry for the many local people. Indonesia has suffered huge damages in this particular cyclone as well.We crossed the favorite spot of Pratap Singh. Let me see how this is transcribed. बहिया तोड़ो गोभी और दो। That is how Pratap used to ask for more sabji.So, Jeevan Bhima Nagar. The Bata on the right, the shoe shop where I think once or twice we have come and purchased the school shoes for the kids. This again goes a long way back. So there is an ambulance. So Nisha can just go little slow and then later decide to cross. This auto carries, is a proud Tamilian, who drives the Karnataka flag. Like me he’s a proud Tamilian. So I love him. I love him so much that I don’t want Disha to hold the door because she’s going to… She won’t care less, she’s become a Tamilian now.There’s a Zomato guy who’s trying to cross to the other side of the road, in a cube. So now we have the bus stand which we have just crossed now. Petrol bunk on the left, I have filled petrol there quite a few times. The Jeevan Bhima Nagar traffic police station. Now no longer scared to cross this traffic police station without a license. You got both the two wheeler as well as your four wheeler license. So I still get scared most of the time crossing this place by scooter because I don’t have my reflector. So, it’s something which I worry about still.The auto stand, in fact, on the right road I have visited some, I think eight years back or seven years back. There is a school at the end of the road which pays fees. I visited for Niharika. I also paid the fees and you know like I took the entrance exam. Got a 30% scholarship off, but then we decided to put her into Aakash.Right, so we have just crossed the LIC residential quarters. Small pile up of vehicles and rightfully Disha has parked herself on the left because she needs to do a left turn now. So after she takes a left she needs to go about 500 meters to that signal. She need not go till the signal, before the signal itself she can gently curve towards the right into that road. What is that road called? Malesh Palayam ring road. So even though the distance might have been higher the time we took to do this particular drive will be lesser because unlike yesterday there was no halt of the car in between.So Disha is keenly observing the flow of vehicles on the left and right. I’m happy with her posture of attention and she has also put the indicator. She will maybe use the vehicles ahead as a flag for her to—careful, careful, careful. Yeah. So she knows the trick of the trade at this junction and she will cross the bus and gently slide towards the left all the time being mindful of the vehicles that may be on the left as well and she’s doing fine. She can wait there’s no hurry here and she can be mindful of the vehicle on the left as well. She didn’t do it, great job. That’s okay. Great job happens when the vehicle behind you does not honk.So, Disha has come to that spot where it needs to take a U-turn or a reverse here. I think the U-turn is what we need to take here. That was one of our first lessons. She beautifully crossed the hump and there’s a—is that paper? Invisible left here. I think the water tank is right of this junction and it shows up in the map. So we are almost near Brihaspandara. Last week on the way to Iconic we visited this Anjaneyar Temple on this road. You know I had wanted to visit. We got idli uppi ray and we carried it for the children as well.So, Keerti Apartments, Summer Apartment of Keerti is on the right. Yeah. What are the names? You’re absolutely right. So HTL is on the right, the huge land of HTL. Actually, both left as well as right. I think it’s Nirmala on the left and Vijaya on the right. Correct? Left is the . Okay. So, Basava Road, we have just crossed it. There is no point in turning left here. Almost. The road has been modernized by now. It’s nicely paved with brick as you can see. The temples are rocking it, with all the lighting. Like the other temple—Oreo leaf. Oreo Leaf.So, we have come to the same spot as yesterday, Netrajyothi. And from here, I assume it’s a breeze. There’s a gentle breeze in the air also. Thanks to the drizzle, the drive itself is a nice breeze. So, as we saw yesterday, the same light mural… which is basically the wine shops, the mall retail shop. The lighting for the newly elevated temple. Nisha needs to put the windshield, sorry, the wiper, a few more times, I feel. Yeah, I mean, she looks to be in total control of the vehicle and totally confident as well. I personally don’t have any problem in her taking the vehicle to any road, as long as friends are able to guide her on the direction and all, because if suddenly, once they reach a junction, if you say turn left or right, then maybe she would be a little bit flustered. As long as they guide her properly, she should be able to proceed. I don’t have any apprehensions about her being able to drive the car as well.We can ask Raghav. Yeah. Oh yeah, exactly. That’s what I said. You can request them to send it to your place. I had gone to… In fact, I had driven to Oya in a BMW. Oh. Yeah, both sides. I wanted to… Rupal has a BMW, and so, to be honest, there is nothing which I found as a difference between any other car and a BMW. It’s all just hype. Yeah. What is this? Function which has happened. Yeah, good. I saw one fat man like me gobbling a huge bucket of rice. Omega Health Care.So, Hotel Saravana Bhavan has opened somewhere on the left here. It’s not the original Saravana Bhavan. It’s some sort of a shop and there is also a cake shop on the left which is like that, Rini’s or Guini’s. Markey’s is pretty much open. Markey will be open till 12, I think. That is their legal cut-off time. Another dates shop. The same wooden pizza shop which I noted down yesterday. And yes, we are crossing Poornita Mobiles. I always tell the auto drivers about this bus stand. I say New Mallesh palayam Bus Stand and they don’t seem to know. They only know the bus stand which was earlier there by the park. And that is called the Malaysia—Mallesh Palayam Bus Stand for them. So they grumble when we bring them up to this distance.So, mobile shops are open at 10:40 p.m. Eatery is fine, but mobile shop also is open. Yesterday I had asked Nisha whether Zudiu also is open at this time. I have no idea why the wiper is continuously in a fast mode. Even though it’s her call, she’s the driver. One day I want to eat at Shawarma. Nice Shawarma slicing piece. People crowd around this place at 11pm. I don’t know, the Milan Parma guy must be wondering, “Why has this Sudhish not come for a long time?” Because I used to take all medicines only there, in his hospital. PhoneMax is also open at this time.So today, in the morning, I had come to Tasty Bites to quickly grab a couple of—Yeah. So, we have covered 20 litres of milk for Nivika. We have almost reached the star code gate. And this sort of effectively brings Nisha’s second day of lesson to a close. She told me very calmly…Have I become less rash?Yes, you have become less rash, definitely. So this is even more definitive than yesterday. Yesterday itself, I gave a complete green flag to you in terms of your calmness and today was equally so. So perhaps that rashness came because of a little bit of inexperience and under-confidence and nothing else.Yes.So it means that you’re an extremely confident driver now. So the rashness has all but disappeared. It has completely disappeared.Why should I use words—Really? Completely?Yeah. It is.Why did I have rashness?Because I told you that, maybe because of your lack of complete confidence.Oh.It was, yeah. The movements become jerky, no? Which one feels as rash. You’re rash. So now there is no jerkiness in your driving movements. It’s very smooth and calm and plain and with full confidence.So inside the star there was no new driving lessons to be picked up. So we are about to enter Cherry Lane, followed by our own Irish lane. No ones on the road thanks to the small piece of rain. Oreo is also looking out of the window anticipating arrival at home. Obviously he knows that we are being strong. So usually my war cry to Oreo when we cross the gate is, “Oreo my nerbun toooo”.But the power cord doesn’t work at all right?It works.Does it help?I don’t think—It helps. It’s supposed to help. Right? I tried it. It worked. Do it. It will work. It worked. Yeah. But it doesn’t help me.Okay. I see what you are saying. Perhaps the blade has worn out. Yeah, but we have decided that I will not again take this car to service. We will sell this car away come end of 2026. So I don’t want to do anything.Why? Why not?Because… Yeah, but we will not service the car again. No. So I don’t want to take it to the showroom only for replacing the rear wiper blade.Oreo has given a yelp. Okay, so Nisha has parked the car beautifully and I’m ending my transcription at 10:45 P.M.