"Dream, Dream, Dream! Conduct these dreams into thoughts, and then transform them into action."
- Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
7 Oct 2019
While most men fail a car test in Dubai, Suja Thankachan has managed to secure a heavy bus license. As a child, she had always wanted to drive heavy vehicles like buses, trucks, tankers as she had watched with admiration when her uncle drove these heavy-duty vehicles and parked them in front of their house. She had made up her mind then, that she would learn to drive them all one day.
After almost three decades she is now living her dream as she has now got a driving license for bus and that too in UAE. It took her nine months of hard work and six failed attempts to get the license. She arrived in Dubai three and a half years ago and to make a living, she worked as a conductor of a school bus of Millenium School. She was a very dedicated worker of the school as she assisted faculty in setting up the examination hall and counting question papers. She also helped students to troubleshoot problems in their laptops. Soon, she began taking driving lessons to apply for a license and started training for driving a bus.
Suja says that the driving test in the UAE is extremely difficult to crack as if one misses looking at the rearview mirror or overlook even a tiny detail, they will fail that person. That is the reason it took her six attempts to finally clear it.
Her new license will put Suja in the driver’s seat of the school bus. She will pick up and drop 53 students from kindergarten to class 12 and do four trips in a day.
As word spread of Suja’s extraordinary feat, she has started receiving job offers from other schools, private companies and even the Dubai government. However, Suja is content working for the school that supported her when she applied for her heavy bus license.
Image Source: The News Minute