Suresh was concerned. It's been a decade before he had ever driven a car. Now, a plan of an outing with his friends have led to a situation where he had to be sitting on the driver seat. He had accepted the request because it's costlier to rent one for whole day, also, only he had the car in his group.

He went to his garage to check the car. The meeting was early next morning, so he wanted everything is in working condition.
Although the car was older but Suresh made sure that it was in working condition. Every six month he brought a local mechanic, who would check and do regular servicing for him.

Suresh looked at the car, which was just been serviced a month back. It was a silver Chevrolet car. He loved the sides, the bonnet was his favorite. He still remembers when he first saw this beauty at the showroom. He was still younger, newly married guy, who wanted to take his wife to many places. After he got his promotion, he went to check the best looking budget car that he could buy and finally his eyes fall upon this beauty. It was under his budget, so he took the swift decision even before consulting with his wife. It was meant to be a surprise, and it was more of a shock for his wife. With an initial protest, his wife accepted it wholeheartedly. They had many vacations which lasted till they finally have their first child. But he soon stopped using car.

It was during one such day, when he was taking the car for some routine shopping, he first faced the danger. The road was getting more crowded those days, but driving the car was his moment of fun. He was so engrossed in driving, that he forgot to be more cautious of other vehicles. It was really shocking for him when his car bumped another car and caused an accident of a bike. Apparently, the bike was on the wrong route, forcing Suresh to change direction without checking for another car that was trying to overtake him from the other side. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but vehicle damage costs were incurred by him as he was blamed for the accident.
Following that incident on, he stopped driving car as he was really scared of such incidents to happen again, which had affected him both mentally and financially.
His wife tried to comfort him but she too got busy in child care, and years passed.

"Next year, I will ride " Suresh always made such statements and resolutions, but he got too comfortable driving his bike for daily commute, which was also lighter to the pockets.

So, this meeting with his college friends came as a pleasant surprise. He let his fingers touch the surface of the door of the car. The cold metal doors, the feeling of the hold of door lock, everything was flooding back memories of his past self as he remembered how many joyful rides he had with this beauty. Tomorrow would be the day, he finally get reunited with his partner. He entered the car, closed the door. As he put the key for ignition. With shaky hands, he hold on to the steering wheel, with his feet on clutch and accelerator, he took a deep breath, looking at the mirror and spoke firmly, to bring out the courage;
" Okay, time for a practice run. "

And car started with a loud noise of the engine.

© Dr. Manish Rout