A camera -captured video clip of a driverless black Indica going down a road in Dwarka with a lone passenger in it, stirred the city up on Saturday. As credulity was strained, explanations poured in, featuring laptops, CCTV, sensors, and even supernatural intervention. In the end, it turned out to be the handiwork of the car’s driver.

Times City caught up with the mystery man, Harish Tomar — who was calmly seated in the passenger’s seat reading a newspaper while the car drove along — to get the howdunit tale. And this is what he had to say.

‘‘There is no magic involved in driving like that. I simply sit in the passenger’s seat at such an angle that my legs are diagonal and my feet reach the accelerator, clutch and brake pedals. I turn the rear-view mirror to the other side so that I can look around and manoeuvre the steering wheel while holding it from the bottom with two fingers — I am careful to keep my arm under the level of the car’s windows,’’ says Tomar, adding that his six-feet frame and long legs make it that much simpler.

Tomar was arrested and booked under sections of rash driving and endangering the safety of others, and is out on bail. The miracle car, however, has been impounded by the Dwarka police.

Ask Tomar why he would want to drive like that and he is quick to retort: ‘‘Bas shauk tha. Aate jate log dekh kar hairan hote hain aur kayi baar meri video clip bhi bani hain (Just wanted to do it. People around get surprised to see a car like that and many have even made video recordings).’’ As such, Tomar he makes it a point to keep all four windows of the car open.

Tomar says this was not the first time he was ‘magic-driving’. ‘‘I first tried driving like this way back in 1993 in an Ambassador car, when I was working for a politician in North Avenue. Since then, I’ve mastered the art and driven on almost all models be it Hyundai Accent, Honda City, Santro, Esteem or Maruti 800. In fact, a few months ago, I drove back from Hardwar all through the highway like this with three friends sitting in the back,’’ he adds.

Does he ever feel it is dangerous? ‘‘No,’’ comes the reply. He claims that he can drive a car with as much control sitting on the side seat as he would from the driver’s. ‘‘I can see around with the mirrors and only occasionally look into the newspaper when on a busy stretch or while negotiating a turn.’’

The day his clip was recorded, he says he was returning from Gurgaon after dropping off a relative. Tomar knew he was being shot but chose not to react since it is ‘‘normal for others on the road to take pictures. In fact, a policeman stopped me and said I should be awarded a prize for driving a car like that.’’

The owner of the Indica car was completely taken by surprise. ‘‘I started getting calls asking me how I managed to drive like that — I had no clue what they were talking about till I found out from Harish about his driving skills,’’ says R N Verma, a resident of Shahdara, who deals in aluminium scrap. He hired Harish only about six months ago.

Surprise or not, this is one ‘miracle’ that has been nailed.
DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME, OR ON THE ROAD


A CRASH COURSE IN PASSENGER SEAT DRIVING 1 Harish Tomar would sit in the front passenger seat, leaving the driver’s seat vacant for all to see 2 He steered the car using the bottom part of the wheel, ensuring his right hand could not be seen from outside 3 Since Tomar is 6 feet tall, his legs could reach the clutch, accelerator and brake pedals with relative ease 4 Tomar would adjust the rear view mirrors in a manner that he could keep an eye on traffic behind the car