Bite Me

If i had 250,000 dollars to spend when I'm 35 or 40 years old, what would i buy? A diamond wreath necklace or a super car? A super car. Yes I love cars and consequently, I love driving.

India, more specifically, Indian men do not have faith in female drivers. Some how they do not buy the fact that a woman can handle the stick as well as she does a lipstick brush. Today afternoon, I was in no mood to make lunch and decided to go to a restaurant and get a take-away. Empty, pot-hole-less road, cows here and there, two rowdy looking young men on a pathetic wanna-be super-bike cruising along. I gently sound the horn 20 meters behind them. The pillion rider throws his head back (yes, 'throws') to see I, a woman, is driving the car. The information must have reached the driver because he then literally closed the door on one side while a starved cow took care of the other. The pillion rider looks back at me and grins. I smile at him. In under 20 seconds, I've left them behind me with a parting slap to my car from them; In anger, disbelief, i don't know. I resume the normal city speed of 60kmph. They don't attempt to catch up with me.

I love racing sprints on empty roads when there's no risk of running over pedestrians or homeless animals or fellow motorists. However, I have the common sense to race a moped against another, a motorbike against another and car against another. I suspect even the gits in the above anecdote possessed that sense. In ordinary circumstances, they wouldn't compete with a vehicle with at least 6 times hp/tonne. In my case, they just had to.

What I'm curious about is if this is the case in India or all over the world. To give this what seems like a common notion the benefit of the doubt, is an average man better at driving than an average woman? I remember this 'funny' picture posted by a friend on facebook. A multitude of cars are driving down a six-lane highway. A single white car is headed in the opposite direction. The picture is accompanied by a conversation on phone.
AbCd: Honey, be careful when you drive. some people drive drunk or on the wrong side.
AbCd's spouse: Some? You should look at this. The whole bunch of 'em are driving on the wrong side.
The picture then has a photoshop arrow pointing at the white car and a bubble with the text "And of course, the driver is a woman!"

I don't have a problem with the oblivious driver being a woman but what's the deal with the "of course"? I'm positively sick of it. I'm pretty sure I can drive better than most over-confident, not talented gentlemen. Don't Mess With Me.