Kamal Baruah
(The writer can be reached at kamalbaruah@yahoo.com)
My transfer to Bangalore now Bengaluru had changed the way of my living. Immigration transformed the city into a cosmopolitan metropolis, where that is the city of two-wheelers and not cars are the main contributors to traffic congestion. The city is one of the IT hubs of Infosys, Google, and Amazon in India, where MNCs have their HQs and Software Technological Parks. Many successful Indian tech startups like Flipkart, and Mantra are also home in that city. There are plenty of places in some of the most popular localities in Bangalore that has the suffix "halli" at the end. We called Bangalore as TecHalli (Tech village) instead of Silicon Valley then.
The southern city is India's must-visit tourist destination that lets you enjoy trips in your fast pace of life. The garden city is just awesome as one can be forever young and raring to go. Young days had no fear and I also got motivated to drive myself crazy seeing all the happenings of the fast-moving urban lifestyle. But I had to wait three-long months for a two-wheeler loan from IAFBA New Delhi as banks were not willing before the liberalization of the banking sector. And the draft had finally come officially to my base.
Fortunately, there was no waiting for booking a vehicle those days. I managed to buy my favourite Yamaha in one go after submitting an invoice. Everything had gone so far so good but the real tough was to know svalpa (a bit) Kannada then how to drive on busy MG or Brigade roads. No Kannada, no respect as Kannadigas have a strong feeling that if you don't know little Kannada then you have no business being there. Despite all, we considered it as Namma (our) Bengaluru as I learned how to pronounce at least dosa/ sambhar right. They were sumptuous, luxurious meals too.
There had been several outings often at the weekend, however, my first anxiety was to have a Motor Driving License at the earliest and I rushed to the Yashwanthpur RTO at Bangalore North on the very next Saturday. There was not a big deal in that RTO at the southern city other than facing difficulties with mixing of Kannada from RTO Inspector Mr Manaswini. A set of questionnaires for written and leaflets of Traffic Signs for interviews were given to learners. RTO officials were very prompt, spoke bilinguals and within an hour the Learner License was issued followed by sticking an 'L' sticker on the front and back mudguard of my bike.
Happy days were over as I had to appear a driving test after a month. As I said earlier, the RTO office is very organized and they tend to warm up if you start speaking to them in their language. I didn't face any hassle of appearing for a test but it was a frantic reply from the same inspector saying "mundina-baribanni" (come next time). I did not follow, he immediately retorted. Oh Kannadaillasvami (no Kannada sir).
I was very disheartened by the outcome. I might have won the battle by extending my learner, but I lost the war while asking to appear again after a month. I realized my mistake of touching the yellow line marked while returning. I made up my mind to be cautious next time but come out unsuccessfully once again with another disqualification for failing to raise a hand sign while turning. His argument was for failing to synchronize hand signals with indicators. Canada (what's that), I was dispirited. I never heard of such strict measures for issuing a Driving License in my native state Assam.
After a month passed, I appeared again with farm determination as it was the third and the final attempt. The result came with a bang. The inspector declared the result reading one of the shortest lines "Nivellaruarharu". The other third timers Kannadigas felt jubilant but I was confused by what Kannadiga inspector said so. He then read the rule loudly that you have to qualify on the third/final attempt or we will let you pass automatically. Aduhagide (Is it so?). I burst out laughing then. "Haudu (Yes) I got my motor Driving License at last" in the southern city of namma Bengaluru, where the Kannadiga inspector made such as fuss when I had a sleepless night over three months.