Driving Waymo - The Driverless car

 When I first came to United States almost Twenty five years ago, one of the first things I was forced  to do was securing a driving license. With a new country and different accent, navigating the system to get the license was not an easy one for me. I signed up for driving lessons which turned out to be a costly affair. After six lessons, I was still not confident enough to drive my own- this coming from a person who had secured a drivers license from India after a series of driving classes.  Somehow the highways and bridges intimidated me. 

My fear for roads date back to when I can remember. I can’t cross the busy roads without panicking. So driving is something not going to come easy for me. Seeing my situation, my husband decided to give me some private lessons in his brand new white car.  We went to a parking lot to practice parallel parking. He asked me to turn left and I turned right by mistake. The connection between the wheel and the steering did not register in my brain, especially when someone is directing me. The stress took over and I became numb and confused which caused the car to bump multiple times on the sides. The sessions ended in a bitter way with an angry husband and equally angry wife who gave up on driving. Seeing my husband and I fight over the driving, my son got super emotional and came to protect me and started crying. A fear creeped through my mind that I won’t be able to pass the driving test that is scheduled for next day. My husband was lamenting on all the money he spent on trying to make me learn driving and said it is all an utter waste. Even I felt all went in vain and that I should not have started out to try my hand at the wheel in a new car.  While he was worrying about the car, I slightly bumped the car on a yellow rod near the driveway causing the yellow paint stick to the new white Mazda. He jumped out of the car immediately and was shocked to see the paint sticking to it and worried that the car’s value decreased by 10% due to this damage I caused. I felt helpless and worried over what may happen after I fail the test. 

Next day, when my instructor  came to pick me up, he gave me a prep talk. “ Asha, I want you to pass your test today, if you don’t pass, it is not the end of the world, you will get plenty of chances. Try to do your best.” From his words I sensed he is not expecting me to pass, my husband has already given upon my driving at that point and didn’t care much and my five year old son was very anxious for me. And there I went and gave my test without much hope but I passed the test on the first attempt. The stars must have aligned well for me that day. Sometimes, when you try your best, you succeed out of pure luck, especially when you are left alone trying hard. “The universe will conspire and provide you what you deserve if you try with all your might “ as the saying goes. And then on, I started driving, conquering my fear for roads slowly, yet whenever possible I try to avoid it. Driving is just something I do out of necessity. 

Fast forward 25 years, today I took my first ride in a driverless taxi with my husband. San Francisco has world’s first driverless cars on the road. We waited for the taxi to arrive, it arrived and pulled over, we got in and it started as any taxi would. I realized in awe the technological advancement made in recent years. The car stopped at the red light, turned right and left, gave appropriate signal… and brought us to our destination with no hassle. It reminded us to take our keys and belongings when we got out. What a wonderful experience.

As the driverless cars replaces our cars in future, there are real concerns about the jobs being lost. As Waymo arrived to pick us, a passerby woman cursed it. The locals are not so happy to see these driverless vehicles cruising among them. Especially in Sanfrancisco where the income inequality is so starkly on display you wonder how bad things could get to some of these people . There are homeless people everywhere on the streets. For them, what difference these technological advancements make in their daily life? They couldn’t care less about these technologies. I can sense the world is changing around us rapidly and we may not be prepared for it. But the awe of a machine replacing a driver and taking us from point A to point B is still rushing in me. I just wished I was born four decades later so I could have spared the ordeal of learning to drive. 

Home is where the heart is…

After 18 hours of flying time and two hours car ride, I finally reach my destination. This is where I am going to spend my next one month of summer, with my parents and sister. The pandemic has kept us apart from each other in two different continents for a long time and finally we meet. 

I reach home and after a quick shower to make sure that I am free of germs, I take a stroll around my mother’s garden. The lush green surroundings evoke a sense familiarity in me. I see the hibiscus tree bloomed in full, the very same tree my sister and I used to pluck flowers decades ago to make pookalam. During those times, hibiscus, roses and jasmine dominated our garden. I see that the jasmine plant gave way to a mango tree, but amma has replanted it in another corner in the garden. Sweet fragrance of jasmine fills the air. During monsoon days, it was a chore for us to carefully collect the jasmine buds in the evening and make long garlands for decorating our hair the next day. The trees, the landscape and everything in it is similar to what it had been years before, nothing much has changed except some new additions here and there. My father walks with me proudly showing off all that is thriving in the garden. It is as if the time is frozen in this home and has captured my childhood in it. 

Inside the house, I see twenty year old me smiling at me from a photo frame,  my son’s childhood photos, our story books still in the cupboards. I open the cupboard and flip through the books I read umpteen number of times. As I see my grandparents photo on the wall, their voice echoed in my ears..bringing a sudden flush of memories of the time we used to be behind Achacha to hear a story from him or with Achamma  while she makes dosas for us just because we don’t like the idlis that is made for breakfast for everyone else while our amma remarking to achamma that she is the one who is spoiling the children. We indeed were two spoiled little girls who got our way with everything under our grandparents’ loving care. 

My sister brings me a cup of brew coffee in the same steel glass I used to have coffee everyday as a child. The vessels, the kitchen, the dinning room, serving plates, clock on the wall and it’s tic tok sound, everything reminded me of how it used to be when I was growing up. How gently my parents have lived their life and made a home!

Traveling back is not only to visit  family, it is also a pilgrimage to find the lost child in you. And that is one more reason we keep finding our way back home, to be that child again to our parents as long as we can, to once more enjoy their affection and care, to remind ourselves that this is a place we can come back to rest a little, to keep our burdens off and be that carefree child.