Wednesday, March 23, 2011

What wheel?

A newspaper article (8th March, Times of India) specifies that the Deccan Queen would be piloted by Surekha Yadav, and for the first time "a woman would be behind the wheel". What wheel? Surely, this should not read as "behind the wheel", but "above the wheels". Surely, there is no "steering wheel" in a loco. Okay, I am trying to be picky here, and I get it that this is more of a commonly-used phrase, but hopefully the author also understands the same.

Coming back to Surekha Yadav, I have, of course, read about her earlier. She was also filmed in the National Geographic documentary on "Mumbai" in their "Megacities" serials. She is shown piloting a CR suburban local (probably shot between Dadar and Kurla) frantically blowing the horn to ward off trespassers.