Soon after I finished high school I began taking driving lessons three times a week. In total, I paid for twenty lessons with Avalon Driving School, which was owned and run by driving instructor Mo Singh.
Mo was in his mid-fifties but looked much younger, especially since he usually wore a flat cap that hid his bald spot. He was short, but had the broad build of a boxer; it often seemed as though he was too big for the car seat. The most distinctive thing about him was the huge number of cigarettes he would smoke during a lesson. The car was permanently filled with the aroma of his Dunhills.
Mo was generally good-humoured and patient with me. He would rarely issue any explicit instructions, apart from street directions. Usually he would talk to me about football, as we were both big Manning Rangers fans.
Within four lessons I found myself much more comfortable behind the wheel – which I attributed mostly to Mo’s laid-back manner. Early on, Mo said that he could tell I wouldn’t have any difficulty passing my driving test. All I needed to do was to work on the finer details like checking my mirrors and improving my parking. “You going to be a lekker driver one day and you must remember who taught you,” he said the first time I successfully completed a three-point turn.
I was six lessons in when I met Idris Shaik for the first time....
From Chatsworth by Pravasan Pillay, a collection of 11 short stories that highlight working class life in a residential area that was allocated for South Africans of Indian descent during apartheid. The stories take place in the recent past and bring to life the nuances of life in this community, without leaning into stereotypes.
Available at www.madeinchatsworth.co.za.
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