Recorded live, by yours truly, from a balcony last weekend. No value judgement about women's driving skills, no personal bias, no quoting from German woman professor Claudia Wolf's research on parking skills of men and women (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1237383/Men-really-ARE-better-parking--thats-woman-professor-talking.html). I am swiping off any hint of smile with a dark handkerchief as I write this. Yes, I giggled when I saw the scene unfolding under my eyes last Saturday, the 3-min sequence being as below:
- a new sedan car with windows rolled up come under the balcony (it is a wide end of a blind lane)
- tries to turn around (takes one round of backing up unless the car is a maruti)
- ends up on the edge of the road where the edges slope slightly to ensure water drainage
- stops, rolls slightly, stops precariously close to the garden fence of the house ahead, can't back off (no dearth of space at the back)
- a teenager steps out of the car and goes near the bonnet, touches it to push the car back, startles and takes his palm off because the ambient is 37 degrees and the bonnet is 40
- his father come out of the left front seat and the duo PUSHES THE CAR BACK using their handkerchiefs as gloves (at this point i whip out my cellphone and start recording)
For a moment I thought the car battery was dead, but then as soon as the car came in the middle of the road width I could see a pink sleeve in the driver's seat :-) Then the car moves smartly forward from that safe position, when it does not require backing up anymore. The father-son duo get in to the car and the mom briskly drives off. Seeing the drive away, no one would believe that a few seconds ago the lady was struggling to back up on a 5 degree slope and rotate the steering 30 degree to the left to back the car up to the middle of the road. I realized then, moving forward and moving back are two entirely different ball games.
I am not trying to say anything here. It is just a visual. Get mad at me, or sit back and enjoy. Cheers!
