[GTO]

Happy to announce that BHPian SS-Traveller will be conducting his first Low Risk Safe Driver Training Course (open to the general public) on 18th & 19th October, 2014. The fact that it's over a weekend should make it more convenient for folks to attend.



Venue:

Rainbow Room, First Floor,
Vasant Vihar Club,
88 Paschimi Marg,
Vasant Vihar,
New Delhi - 110057.

Program:

Day 1: Full day (10 am - 5 pm) lecture, demonstration and interactive session with appropriate breaks (including lunch, tea & snacks).

Day 2: On-road hands-on training. 1.5 hour training sessions on the road for batches of 4 participants in one car at a time. Each batch will be given a designated time & place to meet and start the training. Participants' own vehicles will be used for the hands-on training.

Fee:

Rs. 2,500 per participant.

Registration payments via NEFT/cheque/cash deposit to Shamindra Sengupta, Account number 119-0101-00-00-4732 at Axis Bank, Vasant Kunj Branch. IFSC Code UTIB0000119, followed by a confirmation email to reduce.road.risks@gmail.com. A confirmation email will be received by the registrant within 24 hours.

Certificate that will be issued to participants:

[BlackPearl]

Great initiative by Shamindra Da and thanks GTO for sharing this. Hope Shamindra Da will conduct this training in Calcutta in future as well.

[khoj]

Let me be the first one here to confirm my participation in the program.

I do have one query though : in whose name should the cheque be drawn?

[latentpotential]

This is something that I have been looking for a good amount of time. Anyone planning to conduct such a session in Mumbai?

[GTO]

Originally Posted by khoj

in whose name should the cheque be drawn?

Shamindra Sengupta. Added the same to the opening post as well.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by GTO

Happy to announce that BHPian SS-Traveller will be conducting his first Low Risk Safe Driver Training Course (open to the general public) on 18th & 19th October, 2014.

@GTO: Thank you for highlighting this on Team-BHP.

Road safety and driving standards have deteriorated so badly in this country that I had felt a need to do something about it (actually the government has also felt that need, and so we have the new Road Traffic and Safety Bill about to replace the antiquated MV Act!). To that end, I enrolled for a Train the Trainer Course with a Driving School called Corporate Driver Training Australia (http://cdta.com.au/) in Melbourne, and received my training and certificate in June this year. I wanted to be qualified and certified to tell people how to drive better, safer.

Sure, I drove well, and had been driving without crashes for many years. I was also aware that I had a lot of baggage of bad driving patterns in me as a defence mechanism against the unpredictable traffic across India. But the training program was an eye-opener for me, and changed my outlook towards driving. Low Risk Driving was not about careful driving or slow driving (which I was doing anyway). It was about scrutinizing one's surroundings a lot more minutely that I had ever done, weighing the risks on the move constantly, and making progress with a lot less worry about what might happen. Now driving for me is a bit like a game of chess (where the moves can be thought through before execution), where earlier is was more like Russian roulette (where luck mattered)! Now, I find I actually cover ground a little faster while driving, but feel safer.

I have been putting down some of those thoughts and techniques, adapted to Indian conditions, in this thread on Team-BHP. It's a small part of the overall teaching process, but the techniques can be more easily incorporated with a demonstration than with words. Towards that end, I decided to hold a program open to all (albeit in limited numbers only).

Originally Posted by BlackPearl

Hope Shamindra Da will conduct this training in Calcutta in future as well.

Originally Posted by latentpotential

Anyone planning to conduct such a session in Mumbai?

The course is portable, and can be conducted almost anywhere at all - all it needs is a venue, a laptop & a projector, specifically designed workbooks for the use of participants, and a few small props, which can be easily carried. The on-road hands-on part of the training just needs a car and any public road (city or highway, does not matter). So whether in Calcutta or Mumbai, as long as we have a group of participants interested to undergo the training, I shall be more than happy to teach!

Participants do get a certificate and a sticker at the end of the training, but those may not carry much intrinsic value. What would matter is the overall improvement in safety standards while driving in the chaos that our roads are, and the ability to give yourself feedback to continue improving long after the course is completed.

[BlackPearl]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

The course is portable, and can be conducted almost anywhere at all - all it needs is a venue, a laptop & a projector, specifically designed workbooks for the use of participants, and a few small props, which can be easily carried. The on-road hands-on part of the training just needs a car and any public road (city or highway, does not matter). So whether in Calcutta or Mumbai, as long as we have a group of participants interested to undergo the training, I shall be more than happy to teach!

Attachment 1292468

Thanks Shamindra Da. Please let us know what would be the minimum number of participants required and I will inform other bhpians from Kolkata.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by BlackPearl

Thanks Shamindra Da. Please let us know what would be the minimum number of participants required and I will inform other bhpians from Kolkata.

The maximum number that would be comfortable for the 2-day course is 24 participants. For up to 8 participants, an extended 1-day session (say, 8 AM to 8 PM) covers the same content.

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Hi Doc,

After the telephonic conversation today, even i felt the need to attend one of your courses. Thanks for the offer of a 1-to-1 course when I'm in Delhi.

All the best for the program

[archat68]

I'm in Delhi now and want to participate in the program but I don't have a car in Delhi now. Is it possible for me to participate?

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by archat68

I'm in Delhi now and want to participate in the program but I don't have a car in Delhi now. Is it possible for me to participate?

Yes, it is possible. Since the on-road training would be conducted with 4 participants per car, I am sure you can share the driving experience on a mutually agreed basis in the car of another participant.

[sudev]

Who else is going to be there? A mini-T-BHP meet?

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by sudev

Who else is going to be there? A mini-T-BHP meet?

Was a bit of a mini-Team-BHP meet all right. Here are some of the pics from Day 1 and Day 2.

There were Sudev, khoj, Mrs. Predatorwheelz and Mrs. akp on Day 1, and predatorwheelz and akp joined us for lunch on Day 2.

As to a review of the course, i'll leave it to the members who attended, to comment. Feedback from predatorwheelz and akp as to whether they find any difference in how the ladies drive subsequent to the course, is also welcome!

[sudev]

Certificates being handed out by SST at end of the course.

[predatorwheelz]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Feedback from predatorwheelz and akp as to whether they find any difference in how the ladies drive subsequent to the course, is also welcome!

Before penning down my wife's review of the course, let us dwell on her background as a driver. Or indeed mine.

When she came into my life some years ago, she came with a driving license, but she couldn't drive! Apparently her father thought a DL is creditable KYC document, actual driving capability notwithstanding. Being the car nut that I am, my first mission was to teach her to drive.

So what kind of driver was I, her teacher? The boy who learnt driving at 16 from his family driver. The latter was a formally uneducated man, but one who had been driving for 20 years. All my education came behind the wheel, being asked to use my instinct, with tips and tricks on how to handle an Ambassador (trust me, 80pct of those are not even needed on modern cars). In the next 17 years and some lakh kms, all I had was actual driving experience. All driven on instinct.

Naturally I taught her the same way. And she learnt well. Well enough to handle a car in crazy Kolkata and Delhi traffic, enough to do some highway runs as well. Of course we didn't see eye to eye on all her driving methods. But she was in control of the car, instinctively. For me, that's all that mattered.

Until she attended SST's course. That Sunday, when we returned from the lunch, I asked her about her experience. She said it was the best classroom session she had attended. Being a teacher, and a dozen associated courses and workshops under her belt, that was some praise! She said the concepts had been explained well, with real world examples (in pics), and actual participation from the course mates (most of whom came with triple her experience) mattered a lot. Her eyes had been opened to dangers on the road that we are normally aware of, and some good driving practices.

Then I observed her over a few sessions, by handing over the steering wheel (tough call!) some days. She seemed to have a new awareness of the environment around her. She now senses things like measuring (eh?) the gap between 2 cars before pushing into it, says things like "ideal speed in this scenario should be blah blah" (some more eh) and "hidden dangers" (complete eh). On a serious note, she seems to have become a better allround driver, one with whom I can relax when in the passenger seat.

But every silver lining has a cloud behind it . Now I'm henpecked as to how unsafe a driver I am, instinct and experience be damned. How I should learn to watch hidden dangers, how I have no idea of gaps, blah blah. Good marketing technique by SST. Teach the wife to be a safe driver, she'll eventually convince her husband how unsafe a driver he is, and SST will get a second student.