My wife and I went to Tirunelveli in 1988 for a stay where I had a short assignment. Very frequently, I had to move around to small villages in the interior of the district. I always made it a point to return home however late it may be.
I had a Maruti-800 car for my travels. The car was small and convenient to navigate through very narrow streets and alleys in Tirunelveli town and suburbs. I used to engage an experienced driver. He was a native of Tirunelveli and knew every nook and corner of the town and indeed the whole district.
On the whole, he was a good driver. My only grouse against him was his habit of using the horn for no rhyme or reason. He would tap the horn — just two taps — and the horn would blare forth two short hoots. It used to remind me of the bird’s call in the Road Runner Show cartoon which I used to love.
His short bursts on the horn used to be at every two minutes interval, especially during post noon drives. There might not be any vehicle, human or cattle in sight, still, the two short hoots will continue to sound.
Once — and only once — I asked him the reason behind the continual hooting. He sheepishly replied, “Sir, I get very sleepy while driving, so I keep tapping the horn to keep awake!”
I think I had mentioned to him earlier that some roads inside the town and in the suburbs were very narrow and I used to think driving on them would be a nightmare. The Maruti driver showed me how wrong I was!
If he was going at about 40-50 kms speed on normal roads he would suddenly accelerate to 60 to 80 kms speed in those narrow roads and the sight of the oncoming traffic and people running helter-skelter to avoid the Maruti — and its madcap driver — used to scare me and spruce up the sagging spirit of my driver! After two-three such scary trips, I learnt that driver was with Pallavan Transport corporation earlier. And, surprisingly, his driving licence was clean with no endorsements!