Keralite businessman, Esmail Pillai Salim's recalls how getting a license and a car in 1977 transformed his life.
Having obtained his license 45 years ago back in 1977, Esmail He also claimed he has driven for an estimated 2 million km since then without causing any accidents.He emphasized the coincidental significance of Tuesday in his life, with his first day leaving home for UAE, license issue date & renewal date all falling on Tuesdays.
Roads and Transport Authority were still to be formed back then and driving tests were under Dubai Police. “We had to book classes for a month at a driving institute. Driving classes at the time were mostly about giving the learner the confidence to use the steering and drive the manual cars. There was no signal test. There were hardly six-seven road signs. Still, I failed in the first two tests and cleared the third one.”
It was an auspicious day for the family as Salim cut a cake carrying the image of his license that shows his date of birth, the date of issue of his first license, and the date of expiry of the last renewed license on May 30, 2022.