Explorer of Experiences

Mussoorie International School “Hanisha, you’re going to boarding school! Are you excited?” To my eleven year old mind, this one sentence coming to me from my mum was just too much to process; I probably did not completely comprehend the entirety of the situation and the journey I was going to embark on. One minute, it is life as usual with my sisters and I returning from day school in Nigeria lugging a 3kg bag with books – and the next minute, there was going to be a disruption in this cyclical routine of eight years in the form of being sent to a boarding school in Mussoorie. I did not even know where Mussoorie was! Was I prepared to leave behind my oyster and be swung atop mountains unknown? I was fresh out of fifth standard and watched as my mum and dad gathered the contents of my cupboard and neatly placed them into a suitcase. We were departing for Delhi the next day from where we would hail a cab and head towards my mum’s maternal home in Jaipur. I remember it all so w...

Clutch. You darn thing. My nemesis. Yes, after having learnt how to ride, I am now learning how to drive. Embarrassed for a long time for not knowing how to move a car and bike, I made up my mind I would just learn and get these two things done with once and for all.  I gave myself a breather of a month post my bike classes to actually pick up the phone and enrol myself into driving school. Maruti Driving School was highly recommended to me and I was quite keen on opting for them having heard highly about their professionalism and their teaching modules. Besides, I did not want to repeat the mistake of joining one of those private training schools who are only interested in your money and care little about whether you actually learn to ride/drive at the end of your sessions.  One of the first things the trainers at the school laid emphasis on is road safety. They have a simulator that you spend xx hours on and they have theory classes and a demo wher...

I'm 26, and I don't know how to ride or drive.  There I've confessed  (now my shoulders feel light) .  What a shame right? For all my life, I've been piggy-backing on someone else to get me from point A to point B. So much dependence. Sheesh Hanisha!  My sister 8 years my junior took to the wheel before me (shame again, I know...I know!). I'm the only one left out of my four siblings who doesn't who the C of a car or a b of a bike. But don't judge me...I've tried learning both, a two and a four wheeler - a two wheeler in college when all I could manage was riding on the straight empty roads, but having my heart in my mouth on the turns; a car when I was in school, where for two days I'd just drive it in the compound round and round in circles, with a nervous-wreck of a driver sitting beside me. But I never saw through either. Both trainings ended abruptly and my heart wasn't in it either.   Recently, when I switched jobs and moved back ...