Gender barriers

I found myself parked on the roadside yesterday, with a flat tire. For a few minutes I was stuck immobile. In all the years that I have been driving my car, both in the US and more recently in India, it was truly the first time that I was by myself when it happened. I know the fundamentals of changing tires but had never done it. I got out and looked at the sad state of the rear tire. I looked around. A bearded man in a navy blue sherwani was fixing similar tires in a small shop on the opposite side of the road. I walked over and asked him to take a look. He proceeded with the work at hand, a scooter tire, followed by a motorcycle one, with no sense of urgency, much like a doctor with a waiting room full of patients, everyone is sick and miserable, what is the rush?

I spoke to Shyamala about options as I waited. The verdict on the tubeless tire was that it was damaged due to driving some distance after deflation. I asked him to load the spare tire which he completed efficiently. There seemed to be repair options but I was not sure if this was the right place to get it done. I paid him and went to the location suggested by Shyamala where after a couple of discussions a decision to fix and load the "repaired" tire was taken. It took over an hour from the initial observation of the flat to the restoration of the original tires so that I could head home. I had spent time outside greasy repair shops, interacted with mechanics and made decisions about the well-being of my car on my own.

It was the first time that I had dealt with automobile issues, a subject typically handled by men, not because of inherent knowledge in these matters but because in the great gender debate, men are often saddled with roles just because they are men. While men have proven themselves in the kitchen (if you don't believe me, just look at the contestants on cooking shows), it is possible that women can handle electrical and mechanical matters just as well as their male counterparts. It is a matter of application of the same approach you normally use for solving any problem; look at the situation, available resources, possible options and choose the one that works best in the best current circumstances.

I felt very proud of myself for handling the situation well, felt macho actually. But there was still a little voice inside me that kept repeating "You should have checked the tire pressure. Haven't I been asking you to do that for the last two weeks?" Perhaps I should continue listening to my feminine intuition also.