My Priceless Driving Licence

A driving licence stands at the cross road of teenhood and adulthood, dependant and not independent, a person entitled to an opinion or a youngster whose views are taken with a pinch of salt. A driving licence is a status symbol and passing the test is a red-letter day in your list of achievements!

Living in Dubai I presumed that getting the licence would be an across-the-counter exchange of paperwork. How mistaken I was. If you had an American, British or European licence for instance, it was indeed an across-the-counter exchange but if you had an Indian, Asian, African or other authorisation you had to sit a four-part test notwithstanding that you had driven in New Delhi for over ten years. The Capital of India is one of the most challenging places in the world to steer a car with bumper to bumper traffic together with a determination to always be ahead of the guy in front of you.

The four-part driving test comprising of parking, reversing, hill, road test and road signs was not a cakewalk then and isn’t today. The instructor explained that using the rearview mirror and wing mirrors was mandatory and you could get a ticket and a fine if you drove too slowly! All set for the test I faced a strange and extraordinary hurdle. One male examiner could not test me on his own because I was a woman and this was unacceptable. A solution was found; two examiners took me for the test which I failed because I was a woman and could not pass at the first attempt. Today of course progress has ensured; there are several female examiners available to test the learner drivers.

After passing my test I went to Muruquabad to get my licence, parking my car carefully with no ‘NO PARKING’ sign insight. Just my luck a motorcycle cop was standing by my car when I returned triumphant with my licence. The cop shouted something in Arabic about parking in a no-parking zone. By chance, I glanced at my wing mirror and spied a local lady wearing a hijab watching the scene very intently. The cop was a bully set on giving me a parking ticket. The lady picked up her handbag and got out of her car. She reprimanded the policeman for shouting at me as he jumped onto his motorbike and disappeared in seconds. The scene I had witnessed stayed with me. You could take on a cop in the Arab world but never a local lady!

My UAE driving licence is one of my treasured certificates. Acquiring it changed my life and that of my children. The last time I went to renew it, the local lady behind the counter at the police station remarked that I had acquired my licence in 1978 fourteen years before she was born! Mabrook, she said, shaking my hand.