Lady Driver

"They want to overtake me because I'm a woman"

My first lesson in feminism, on the road, in a car, with my mother. The speed increases from a steady thirty, to a healthy fifty, to a look-at-me-I'm-crazy eighty. I turn around and lip read abuses. All the while I am thinking, I'd rather burn my bra.

"Sweetheart its important that you never run over someone" My father tells me rather earnestly...almost pleadingly, as my feet fumble on the clutch and accelerator. I'm offended but I go on. Thinking, this is for you mom.

But then he's back, telling me women cannot reverse as well as men as though it is scientifically proven, an empirically tested theory- one of newton's freaking laws of motion. The parking attendant smiles politely, "Main kar deta hoon Madam". On days like these, I always here my mother's voice at the back of my head, urging me on.

She blocked lanes and got speeding tickets, just so her daughter could never be overtaken like she was when she first hit the road.