8a 04/Dec Today is the 4th of December 2025 and Nisha is on day three of the driving program. It will be a slightly long drive today, but she needs to come back in time for her 11:00 PM conference call and dinner. It might be a bit of a push, but I think it’s okay. We will definitely come back by 10:30, 10:45 max.The plan:- Go on Old Airport Road on the left towards Yemalur.- Go through the lanes of Yemalur, almost reaching Akka’s office (but not going there).- Take the left towards Sakara Hospital and get onto the main road, which is the Ring Road.- Go via Basavanagar Main Road, take a left, go to Yemalur.- At Yemalur Junction, take a right towards Sarjapur Road, which goes towards Pallavi’s house.- Go through the lanes of Yemalur, reach a drainage, curve left towards Sakara Hospital.- Cross Bellandur Lake, go to Sakara Hospital, reach the Ring Road, and come back home via Ring Road.We can decide whether to come on the main road or take the lane by the dosa point (where biryani dosa point is). We’ve done it before. At least this way, you know the onward journey. You can go to Sakara Hospital, then take the Ring Road on the left. Let’s figure out the rest after that. Focus and drive. The ball is in your court.On the second gear of the Ram 200, first gear—okay, sorry. I hope you saw on the left. Traffic could be slightly higher now compared to past sessions. Careful, careful. Stop. Just stop. Almost. I don’t know how this would have happened. That’s okay. Stopping is fine, and receiving scoldings from other people is perfectly fine. It’s much better than banging your car and causing an accident. That’s a golden thumb rule.There is traffic now. The Reliance truck is unloading stuff. They usually do this at night or early morning by 7:00 AM. Some families are out for an evening walk after dinner, while we are doing the car trip—satvik comfort. Nisha seems in total control, calm, confident, and poised as usual. Unlike her previous stint of driving, which was a bit jerky, she’s doing fine now.We have crossed the dry fruit house, Samhita Square, where Nisha’s erstwhile close friend Saitani lived. She parted ways with that friend some time back. I think she joined RVC engineering college. All friends got into good engineering colleges.Axis Bank. Cyclists dart in and out. Moon Hearts School and Daycare. The sweet shop, BBMP office on the right—where we got the death certificate for Prema. The construction of a huge apartment is ongoing. Just focus on the road. National Public School Ribbutipa is on our right. Andhra Bank. Adarsh Vistara management committee—we used to have an account with Andhra Bank, which had 50 lakhs unattended for years. We had to move the account.By now, Nisha knows the stutter of the engine. If it stutters badly, she’s in the wrong gear. We also cross her alma mater, the riding school. Her first guru, Satish, taught her—he was my namesake. Every day, Nisha has his photo placed along with the gods as a guru.Now we go on the empty stretch of road. Nisha is building up to fourth gear. She needs to take a left at the junction and go towards North Alwai, then gently slide right to use the yellow signal to take a right.Laborers are walking back after a hard day’s work. After this exposure, when she gains complete confidence, we should practice on the scooter. By the 10th, she should start the scooter properly, and we’ll have only 10 more days before she leaves for campus. We’ll rest on Sunday, and perhaps next Monday we can start the scooter practice.There is a left, but it’s stopped, so it’s not a free left. Nisha should stop at the corner. Now the left is showing, so she can go. She needs to keep track of the signals—there’s one on the left and one on the right.We just passed the Heritage HAL Museum and come to the HAL Police Station, where Nisha and I went for police verification when our passports hadn’t arrived. I wonder if Nisha remembers that.It’s already one hour past. That’s fine. Nisha has moved to fourth gear. She understands the speeds for these gears, but she should keep her hand on the gearbox at all times. The hand is better at the wheel.There is a light in the distance, which is the signal. She can wait till then, though there’s a small hump. On highways, I always observe the car in front and do what that car does. It’s better to follow a bigger car, not an Alto. If I’m in a Duster, I follow an Innova or a larger vehicle. The vehicle shouldn’t be too fast or too slow.There are scooters on the right—Nisha should be careful. She is turning right towards Soma Palladium, then Nisha’s gate, Villa Community, Epsilon. The inside road stretch of Yamalur is heavily trafficked during the day. Rajni has been caught in that traffic for hours, especially when leaving home at 9:30 AM. But now it’s 9:30 PM, so we won’t encounter that traffic.We are in the landmark group home. Deloitte is here—my friend Pratap used to work here. Judiciary chambers on the left. The road curves towards Yamalur. CGI is the first 2IP company, not doing well after splitting from Apple. They used to be Apple partners.I hope Nisha can see the road ahead—it’s slightly dark. There’s a favorite temple of Rajni and Prema on the left, a Balaji Temple, and another temple 100 meters away. I’ve taken Rajni to both these temples a few times.We go on the road adjoining the old airport compound. The landmark hotel on the left is a juice bar with a Christian-sounding name. At the juice bar, take a left. I can see a green light by the juice bar, which is a doctor’s clinic.Almost all vehicles take a left at the juice bar spot, not the scooter path. When I take a scooter, I go on this road—it reaches Yamalur junction more easily, a bit of a shortcut. The juice bar is called Glory Juice Bar.There’s a traffic jam. Inch forward in the jam. A huge truck is occupying a lot of bandwidth—like internet bandwidth, roads also have bandwidth. I think we should reach home on time. Nisha doesn’t need to be very close to the vehicle in front.The bottleneck is worsened by a car that’s pulled up and is holding up traffic. Just be careful. If there’s a more expert driver ahead, no problem. No need to overtake or show dominance until you’ve mastered it.The car driver finally moves. Nisha is confident, even breaking into a small song. The juice corner has my favorite maggi, Chinese dishes, dosa corner, and a multi-cuisine food court. There are nice fruit ice creams.Nisha is wiggling through a small bottleneck. We’re stuck here for a few minutes. Autos are making their way through. Domino’s and Cult are here. Small road, small houses on both sides. Nisha is rechecking if she’s in first gear—she is. She needs to inch forward and is doing an awesome job.At 9:35 PM, if this is the traffic, imagine mornings at 9:30 or 10:00 AM. It will be worse, especially with the new Prestige commercial property coming up opposite the lake.A truck is trying to take a right, but you need to keep left. The right is for our way back. My favorite Kannada icon, Dr. Puneeth Rajkumar, is on a poster in front. His movies are my Kannada favorites.Parking: For parking, put first gear and handbrake. For halting in the middle, just neutral and handbrake. It’s better to put it in first gear for parking because there are two impediments to the vehicle sliding: the handbrake and the gear. If you’re on a slope and haven’t put the handbrake properly and are in neutral, the vehicle will slide. If you put it in first gear and no handbrake, it might still slide, but it’s a double lock.If you’re on the road, put it in neutral and handbrake. For parking, always first gear and handbrake. On the road, don’t put first gear and handbrake because it will start slipping. Neutral lets you take your leg off the clutch and rest.On this narrow stretch of road, there are unapproved layouts and random construction. Just see how the car is coming—there could be occasions when you need to do this kind of driving. We’re not usually driving in places like this, but nothing will happen to the dog. Dogs know to avoid cars. I’m concerned, but I won’t hit a dog.The road is remarkable—Bedol Engine Oil. Once on PWD Road, you were in similar narrow traffic near Alumart. There are lots of roads like that, so you need to get better at them.We’re moving towards a narrow stretch. At the end, there might be a policeman waving vehicles. Metro Mart is here with some fruits. Sometimes residents block the other side, so vehicles come this way. Right at the temple, be careful.There’s a Honda City in front. Nisha is acing this and has come to the bridge. Can you take it in fourth gear? Not even in fourth gear. Okay, second gear. You’re on third now. Now fourth gear. That was in fourth gear, which is why you lost it when you slowed down. That’s okay.Mayada Petrol Pump. There’s a car on the left—let him go. We’ve reached the edge of Bellandur Lake, a large water body in Bengaluru that’s been encroached upon. The road curves wildly. That was close. No need to catch up to that car. It’s fine.Prestige Lake Shore Drive is here. Careful, there are humps on the left. Can’t see. At one occasion, you came too close to a hump. That’s fine. Don’t worry. We’ve had some lovely experiences during training with Alison.There’s a long tree in the middle of nowhere. Nisha has crossed the curves well. Bellandur Lake is still on her right. There’s a Zomato or Zepto guy in front—Nisha should cross him now, as he’s on a slow scooter.Careful on the main road ahead. At the junction, take a left. For other routes, we take a right, but not now. This goes towards Sakara Hospital and the passport office, where Nisha and I went. Put the left indicator to signal your intent.There’s construction activity, a pet retreat, and a football place on this road. Take the left turn slowly—it’s a blind spot. You’re moving a bit too much to the left, be careful. The football recreation spot is here. We crossed the humps.Nisha has moved to third gear and will go to Sakara Hospital, then to the main road. Since her Indore experience is coming up, we won’t take the small road, but the main road. She can change gear as needed. An auto has stopped in the middle of the road.Put a right indicator and go—there’s space on the right. Keep going straight, hit Indore, and take a left on the main road. No need to take the other road. I’ll tell you when we get there.Be careful because of the crowd, the slope, and other vehicles. Some cars are parked on the left, making the narrow road even narrower. You’ve crossed this place beautifully. You’ve come to Udupi or whatever restaurant it is. Keep going straight. Alapaka Express is here.Cross Sakara Hospital, keep going straight. The straight turning appears. There’s a lane in front. Keep going straight. Careful, a vehicle is coming. Put a left indicator. When you get the chance, join the main flow on the main road.There’s an upcoming Metro station ahead, still under construction. Banashankari Tire Shop is here. Banashankari as an area is far away, maybe the shop is named after the temple. There’s a bit of a car pileup, but we’re at most 30 minutes from home.The bottleneck is due to vehicles trying to get into the urban growth. Intel office is right here. On Saturday morning, I’m going at 6:00 PM. Can we do a drive then? Yes, we can. Today is Wednesday, right? Yes, after work tonight. Got it.This is not a one-way, it’s a service road. Almost all vehicles go in this direction, very few go the other way. The truck was causing the bottleneck. If you go on the service road, there’s a road on the left, but don’t take it—go to the main road to experience main road traffic.Turn where the other cars are going. The simplest way would have been to keep going on the service road and take a left, but not today. Go to the main road. Be mindful of cars turning into the service road.Now you are on the main road. There might be vehicles wanting to get into the service road. We have another five kilometers of main road before needing to take another service road. Your journey will be good.We crossed New Horizon of Engineering. Ahead is an underpass—take the underpass and go right. Nisha was defensive about taking the right here. Stay on the main road for another three kilometers.There are several UMAVAS. I hope no vehicle stops here to give Nisha trouble. Metro construction is in full force, with a huge bridge above. We crossed Oracle. Google is on the other side, towards Mahadev Peth. Keep going straight.Royal Oak is ahead. After Royal Oak, on the other side, we take a left to go to Panagpur, Gitanjali Olympiad School. Nisha will remember the right side, where she takes a fixed bus towards Chennai.There’s another metro station. Let Nisha come to the middle of the road. Barbeque Nation is there. If Nisha can see through, Barbeque Nation is where we used to take a left at the service road to go home, but today we stay on the main road.Which turn do we take now? Eventually, we’ll take a left after Home Center, about half a kilometer away. You can be on the left now.Mahakala Jola—I remember going there for lunch after a jewelry purchase. Keep going straight. The fixed bus stop is here, Star Berlin. Hyderabad House, Live Space on the right, Wheel Commonwealth Homes on the left.No need to fill petrol. We went to the airport, so there’s enough diesel. Another 500 meters, the vehicle will go without needing to fill again. You can roam around for two days, even go to Mysore and back. No need to refill.Nine hours of continuous highway driving is about 400 kilometers. Just put it in perspective. I’ve been through this road seven or eight times. Keep going straight. This is similar to the traffic on the way to the pub, the ring road.If you ask about 100 kilometers, it depends on the traffic. I’m not an astrologer. On the ring road, I’ve been in third, second, and first gear. The side vehicle goes towards Chennai, and this side, sleeper buses go towards Hyderabad. Once you cross those buses, move to the left to take a left from there.After the two buses, move towards your left. You have a lot of space. Keep spotting vehicles taking a left. Take a left on the service road when there’s an opening. If it’s blocked, keep going. We’ll go towards Geneek Hospital.There’s an incline—Nisha should be careful. First gear for the first turning. Continue up. Focus and drive. The vehicle will stop now, and Nisha can get in. Press and go slowly—there’s danger till you reach the flat area. Keep your distance from the vehicle ahead.Move to first gear now. If you want to keep on second gear, that’s fine. You’re doing it, baby. You’re awesome. This is a more natural driving feel. I know she’s doing well, but still.Keep going straight. At any opportunity, take the service road. We’re almost on the plain ground, and she’s come to a complete halt. Kalam is there. One day, Pallavi and I went to Kalam. I don’t know if Nisha remembers.There’s a path on the left—Nisha is going to take it into the service road. Once on this road, we’re going to—I’m looking here, not anywhere else. My job is only direction.We’ve almost come to Kotak Bank. Nisha might remember going there for a card operation. Careful. She keeps going straight. Chapparam Meat House is here. Chapparam is a place in Bihar, so probably Biharis convinced her about this shop.Be mindful of pedestrians. The bike Nisha has crossed. Keep going straight. There will be a main road on the left, which is an easy ride with lots of traffic. Nisha knows which road. Unlike a scooter, which can go through a lane, we have to take the main road to reach Old Airport Road. Kotak Bank is already on the left.At the junction is New Dorj Hospital. Straight ahead, there’s a large road towards HL Management Academy. There are large circles here. This is an easy path. The road curves left and leads to Old Airport Road, near Marathahalli. There, we need to take a right to go home.Where are we now? It’s a long recording. Can you guess how many minutes since we left home? Only 33 minutes. The recording said three minutes long—oh, okay. So 90 minutes total, 60 minutes since we left at 9:10. We’ve already driven for an hour. We’ll drive another 25 minutes. The app has a capacity for 90 minutes of recording. We’re doing well.If I had taken a scooter, I’d have taken a right here, but with the car, take a left and keep going straight. We need to take a right here. This is HL Academy Road, used by traffic people. HL Management Academy is here. Take a right here.Nisha is comfortable and singing away. She followed beautifully alongside the split on the road. There’s another HL academy on the right, Play Centre. She goes left, confidently and comfortably, towards Old Airport. Like me, she strains to see what’s ahead. She’s better in the car because she doesn’t have to turn as much.There’s Jay Thal one star on the right. Lots of trees lined on either side. In the distance, there’s a red light where you need to take a right towards Old Airport Road. The red light is coming closer.She needs to be on the right and keep an eye out for speeding vehicles. She takes a right here. We’re around the sweet shop. She will cut the engine off here eventually. We’re passing through a stop. Eleven more seconds, ten more seconds, and she’ll go past the signal.Now, the difference is closed. She knows the path, the envelope signal, and the way home. I assume I don’t need to guide her anymore. Another successful day of helping Nisha drive. My throat is hurting from all this recording.There’s a huge light at the junction. We have a green signal at MNO. I hope Nisha takes control and goes past. She has managed to do it and will keep to the right of the road to take a right after the KL Museum.Supercomputing India is a union Manipal Institute of Technology is going to take. I can understand traffic on the other side, but why so much on this side? There’s a traffic police on the other side.I love this road during the day, especially on a Sunday afternoon, with trees giving shade. It resembles Jayanagar and a couple of other places. This kind of dense foliage isn’t common in Chennai, only in Adyar and a few other places.There’s a signal here—she needs to put her right indicator. She recognizes the signal sign. She needs to stop, put it on manual, and brake. We’re waiting at the junction towards Basa Nagar, Mengvo. The signal numbering is happening now. You should not go now. Nisha nicely warned a co-pilot who was coming in spite of the signal.I remember the region where we used to take a U-turn. Nisha had started taking a right, needed to take a U-turn. I remember this place on the left where I did training with Disha Nath and my car. We used this place for training. I tried the same with Prem sir, but he shooed us away.After all that, my chances of dying were negligible. We’ll try to drive on this road. When you get more experience, it’s not about confidence or skills, it’s about experience. You need to clock more kilometers. Your skills are perfect. I’m not the one stopping you.I’ve done my job. You have a better driving record. I’ve been endorsing your skills. I’ve taken you till the last mile, which is convincing. With respect to your driving, you are confident, your skill sets are in place, your license is there, and everything else is in place. No jerkiness, not driving rashly. All is positive. The only thing needed is time and experience.You’re better. The island driving competition always helps. You’re like fine wine, aged well. We’ve just crossed the Eneka stand. I go back memory lane and recall feeling tense around this place, waiting for Atul to reach Arash Sajeth. I used to feel tense about you crossing the gate and worried about the slope near Lions.Now, in contrast, I’m relaxed and comfortable. Nisha knows the ropes. She knows to go to second gear for an ant and does it without a problem. All the tricks of the trade are done.We’ve crossed KFC, Chemnoor house, Chathanya Global School, Future Partners, Shell Total Bank. She needs to put a right indicator now. Cigars Victory is open, usually closes around 11. When I used to walk to Hema’s house, I had tea at Cigars and then went. Could have eaten here again.We’re entering Arash Sajeth. Let me close the transcription now, so by the time we reach home, the transcription will be finished. Day three was good as usual. Nisha did a fine job of driving for almost one hour, 20 minutes. She’s on time for both her dinner and her 11 PM call.Thank you and good night.