UNPAID DRIVERS- HUBBIES

I just read a wonderful blog by Sunkan,which tells of how spouses force their opinions on their counterpart.

 This reminds me of so many people I know of.So many friends of mine don’t teach Car driving to their wives, maybe they don’t have confidence in their driving abilities,with the result they land up as chauffers, taking the wife to buy household stuff, vegetables,going to the doctors and so on.Well even if she was an Aishwariya Rai, I wouldn’t go.

I knew driving when I got married, but wife did not.When our first daughter Radhika was born, we had to frequently take her to the doctor.And I had to go for the household shopping.It can be irritating when wife says, just wait a minute in the car, I want to buy bread from the bakery,and comes out after half an hour with a few bags of stuff and asks me for a few hundred rupees for other stuff she suddenly remembered.Like Butter,cheese,Bread Sticks,some pasteries and what not.I used to wonder why buying a bread is so expensive.

Waitng infuriates me, shopping even more.I went to buy a Salwar Suit with her,and she takes an hour to try on 10 of them before she chooses one, then want s to see some sarees, all the while  I am bored to death, just waiting to get out.

That was when I decided I must teach her to drive a car to be saved from the agony of being an unpaid driver to her.First enrolled her in a Driving School ( She complained that the driving instructor was a flirty fellow, wanting to touch her arms and other places in excuse of teaching her to drive, but I did not give in.

Then she and me went for practice in my rickety Fiat, and after missing a few near accidents, she was on her way.I was the most relieved man that day when she took the car for the first time alone.Now we both go our ways.What with Big Bazaar recently opened here in Jaipur, she wants to drag me along but I politely say no.

Ladies  just don’t know what they want,or at least my wife.She will say I want to buy a few vegetables, say a kg each, and I see her landing up with 20 kgs of stuff, purse all empty.It is only when I am in the mood to look at at pretty ladies at the malls do I go with her, and tell her I am roaming around the mall and when u are finished just  give me a missed call.And to carry that heavy stuff,is backbreaking.

But basically I am a very nice fellow in many ways.HAHA.I never accompany her to buy clothes.I tell her u have to wear them, u choose yr designs and colours, they are fine by me.For the house curtains, and sofa upholstery, I leave it to her and my daughter to choose, deciding the budget well before.We got the house coloured, I decided that I must have Velvet Touch, which I find the best, the last one lasted me 20 years at one go.Colour she can decide.For daughter’s room it was dau’s choice altogether.

Teenagers u know are so fussy about clothes.My daughters come and say, papa we want to buy jeans, I said here take themoney, go and buy whatever u want,but make sure they are decent, and not the low types where flesh is seen.I am a bit conservative , but I give them their choice.I may be seen as  indifferent at times, but I just cant stand and see then take hours , I am very impatient  father and husband.So I tell them I don’t want to spoil yr fun, u go buy yourself or take a friend with you, but kindly spare me the torture.As they say “ one man’s pleasure can be another’s torture”.

But I see so many things.Some of my friend;s wives cant drive, and they are busy drivers for their wives.They must choose what the wife wears.And drop them and pick them up from kitty parties, leaving their business .Yech ! Don’t we have other work.like blogging, to dabble in all this.Let the wives go buy veggies and fruits, and clothes leave me alone with the ladies of Blogging Sites for  good discussions.

Now my daughter too knows driving and she has a 12 yr old Esteem, ragged and rusted, but workable, and she leaves me alone.She dosnt wat a new car, as she says she can bang and dang this one without papa saying anything.She’s smart, afterall she’s Kamalji’s daughter !

So guys, let yr ladies learn to drive, otherwise they will drive u down the bend.And spend some more time here with the beauties around, instead of buying groceries and being a driver to them.Let them too look at handsome hunks all alone,equality is the name of the game.I have my moksha from chauffering,and I hope u too have it Guys.Amen.

KAMAL MAHTANI