#24 The fast and the fearful

Created: July 10, 2022 11:17 AM

Our plan to visit Tirupati was impromptu. 8 AM on a Tuesday morning mom told me “it’s been years since we visited the temple”. I quickly checked the Thirumala website to see the waiting time for visitors and it said there isn’t any. By 10 AM we were en route to Tirupati.

But, the only problem was it’s only been a few months since I got my car and I was still learning the nitty-gritty of driving. And one thing about driving that scared me to death was driving on inclined surfaces - flyovers, parking ramps, and hills. As I drove to Tirupati, I remembered the previous week where I spent a good amount of time stuck at the parking ramp of Forum mall pissing of a long line of cars.

I was afraid of the same thing happening while I drive uphill. But, we drove anyway. My backup plan was to park the car at the base of the hill and take public transport to the temple. When we reached the check post at the base of the hill, I got the courage to say “come what may…we’re driving Uphill”

As I cherished the moment, I saw a police inspector waving at the car, asking us to stop. As I stopped, she opened the passenger door, sat at the back seat of the car, and said “drop me at the temple gate”.

Those words sent shock waves through my spine. The overthinking part of my brain that was sleeping for a while woke up by then and asked “what if she gives you a ticket for bad driving? What if you drive off the mountain road and end up killing the police officer?”

But I didn’t want to say anything directly. Instead, I asked “how steep is the road officer? Is it easy to drive? This is my first time?”

“First time in Tirupati?”

“No, first time driving up a hill,” I said.

I saw fear in her eyes through the rearview mirror. But she didn’t explicitly show it. She looked at her watch, got out of the car, and walked away. When we reached the temple, we felt bad for the officer. She missed a good drive.