Trust Your Father Instinct

All these years my father is the only one driving at home. That’s simply because he don’t believe woman with car. Some of the examples are,

“Cepat la sikit kak long… kosong depan tu,”

“Ish3 apsal potong camtu. Tu mesti perempuan,”

“Kan kuning tu, jalan je la…” “Oh, perempuan… patut la…”

SARCASTIC, GENDER BIAS, SEXIST. and I personally think he is too rigid in thinking all women cannot drive properly. Well, I am against his attitude but what to do. I have no license and I don’t know how to drive so I am not sure whether I can drive well.

Time goes by and he’s getting busy with his work. He has no much time to send and fetch up my brothers at school. Sometime he has to fetch up me too – from bus stop when I got home for holidays. He also has to go and buy things at market. He is the one who drive to kampung for hari raya and kenduri. It’s tiring. And so he let us take the driving license, which is good for us and not so good for him – I guess – sebab my father reluctantly let us drive the car to shop if he’s home.

Now, he’s getting busier and a lot busier with the canteen stuff. (He got canteen tender a couple month ago). The canteen operated 24 hours and apparently he has no time to send, wait and fetch my brothers. Hence my mom has to take over.

I am on a long vacation. Yesterday, I follow my mom fetching up my brothers because afterwards we want to exercise at the recreational area. After that short ride, only I realize exactly why my father doesn’t believe women with cars. They are like jumping here and there, cannot wait uncomplainingly, driving so fast and running on anything possibly they can run on on the road and 20 000 000 other inappropriate way of driving that you may think of.

You know what, before, when my mom sit next to me, she always say, “Slow la sikit”, “Bawak slow slow je, jangan laju-laju,”, “Dah, ketepi, kereta belakang tu laju,” and when she is not going along, she always say “Bawak kereta elok-elok” but yesterday? I don’t know if she remembers anything she has ever said to me.

She drives too fast. She runs on everything from a hole, bumpy, uneven road and to anything else you possibly could see on the road. When she is about to go out of junction, she can actually just go out when I think there is car coming towards us. I don’t know how many times I feel like I hit the brake pedal even I know it’s not there. When she is about to cross the road, I recite syahadah – just in case! Aduh mana la tahu kan. SCARY. It really is.

Last time, I went for a little vacation at PD and since we are all girls, unquestionably the driver is a girl. We all went out for dinner that night, looking for ikan bakar. She cross the road just like that and there is a white car coming to us. Luckily, it was slow and he turns away from us. Obviously we got a loud and long honk. Padan muka. Padahal, it was WHITE car and we are supposed to notice him. Nasib la kelin* tu tak berhenti maki kitorang.

I love riding car but not with a girl. Neither a woman. They are dangerous driver ;p

I myself a girl, a big girl now. I have had accident, once. Luckily, I run on to divider and no other person involved. However I feel sorry for my father. He cannot claim the insurance. It was third party insurance. Ye la, tu kereta lama, da tukar sana sini. Dapat pulak enjin turbo. Tu yang I bawa kereta laju tu tak sedar. Hadoi, kopak ayah.

Anyway, if you are a girl, be extra careful. I guess it is man’s gift that Allah made them a good driver. They are leader and we will always be the follower. And about the comments,

“Cepat la sikit kak long… kosong depan tu,” = girls, when your meter reaches 100, stay at left. 100 is still SLOW.

“Ish3 apsal potong camtu. Tu mesti perempuan,” = when you are about to take over another car, lorry or bus, make sure you can take over. Give signal first and don’t panic. If you are not sure, ikut je la botot kereta tu, you’ll be safe.

“Kan kuning tu, jalan je la…” “Oh, perempuan… patut la…” = when it is yellow, you go faster because after your light turns red, you got 3 seconds before the other light turns green. It is fact. You should know that J

Last but not least, be a good driver.