Shanti Gooljar recently got a $2,000 tip.
She runs a driving school in Manhattan that caters to a high-end clientele, and only works on referrals. She says she has taught the offspring of a few names you might know:
Jerry Seinfeld. Rupert Murdoch. Vera Wang. Katie Couric.
She had initially worked as a paramedic. But after two years, she decided she did not like it and turned to a driving school in the Bronx. Ms. Gooljar quickly realized she had found her calling.
“I just got real good at what I was doing,” she said. The teens she taught connected with her unfiltered, no-nonsense style, and they soon began giving her number to their friends. So she bought her own car and went freelance. Ms. Gooljar, 62, opened her own school in 2014.
“That was 10 years ago,” she said. “And look at me now.”
She owns the Empire State Driving School on the Upper West Side, which has five other instructors. Behind-the-wheel lessons go for as much as $200 per hour, and she works eight hours per day, seven days a week.
Ms. Gooljar lives in a three-bedroom apartment in the Bronx, near where she lived when she immigrated from Guyana with her four siblings in 1972. After the births of her sons — Philip, 43, and Michael, 38 — she and her husband,Vinny Gooljar, upgraded from a studio to a ground-floor space next to a police station, where she now lives alone. Mr. Gooljar, to whom she was married for 43 years, died of a heart attack in 2022.
“After he died, my family wanted me to go to Florida — my mom is there, and my brothers and sisters,” she said. “But I’m at the age where I like the same routine.”
ON AUTOPILOT I wake up at 5 a.m. I don’t need an alarm — it’s all in my head.
Depending what time my first lesson is, I’ll usually stop by Dunkin’ for a small hot coffee with cream. I’m a regular at a few of them — the one in the Bronx on Webster Avenue, and the one in Harlem near 122nd Street. They all know me — or rather, I make myself known to them!
FIRST PICKUP I often have my first lesson at 8 a.m. I’ll either meet the client at their house, or they’ll come to the school in Lincoln Square. I get a lot of prep school students, but also some older people. I’m teaching a 94-year-old right now!
I often take people up, around and through Harlem. I don’t teach downtown, especially not now with congestion pricing — you can’t get anywhere.
BACK TO BACK I roll straight into my next lesson at 10 a.m. I usually fit in four two-hour lessons per day.
The key is to build up their confidence right away. Driving in Manhattan is like driving anywhere. You have to know what you’re doing. If the driver behind you is beeping their horn, move around and let them go.
I don’t allow my students to argue with me, because I’m more experienced. I’d never gotten a speeding ticket in 45 years of driving until September, when I was driving to my girlfriend’s funeral in Virginia on the highway. The officer told me I went 10 miles over the speed limit — really?!
PIT STOP Around 12:30 p.m., I grab another coffee from Dunkin’ and take a pee break. Sometimes I’ll have a salad, and then when I come home I get something to eat. I don’t eat a lot — I need my coffee, though!
THERAPIST HOUR When I’m teaching these kids, I’m not just their driving instructor — I’m also their therapist. They tell me things they’d never tell their mothers.
One of the girls I’m teaching right now, her boyfriend broke up with her last week. She’s 27. It’s better they break up now than they wait until they get married. She’s young. She can move on. I know it’s hard when you’ve been with someone for that long, but it’s better to have it happen now than later.
HEAD ON A SWIVEL Don’t think I’m distracted, though! I’m so good at what I do that I can sit there and have a conversation and still grab that steering wheel out of your hands, stop the car and move across all the lanes to save you.
This time of year, it gets dark around 4:30, so my last pickup is around 3 p.m. When it comes to taking the road test, I’m very proud of my track record. I can count on one hand the number of people who failed last year.
My last lesson ends around 5 p.m., and my drive home is about half an hour, depending on where I end up.
DINNER PLANS I’ll often grab dinner with my son Philip, who lives in Connecticut. Sometimes we’ll go to a place on City Island — the Original Crab Shanty — and eat lobsters and crabs.
Or sometimes I’ll cook for him at home. I can cook real good. I can cook anything. He likes beef curry. Or, if he’s busy, I’ll eat alone. If it’s just me, I’ll have a bowl of oatmeal for dinner, or Cream of Wheat. I love that. I’m very easy to please.
WASH IT OFF I’ll hop in the shower around 7 or 8. I have always been and always will be a night shower person. Especially when it’s so cold, who wants to get up at 5 and take a shower and have your hair all wet?
SADDLE UP I love “Yellowstone” with Kevin Costner. I don’t know what I’m going to do now that it’s ended. His character’s daughter, Beth — she’s the bomb. I’d love to meet her. Maybe Kelly Reilly, who plays her, needs driving lessons — you never know!
RINSE AND REPEAT I crawl into bed between 8 and 8:30. When Vinny was alive, we used to go places. Now, I don’t go anywhere. What keeps me going is work: I get up and go to work, take a shower, come home, eat dinner, then wake up the next morning and go again.
I’m not ready to retire yet, but I’m laying the groundwork. My son Philip is learning how to run the school — scheduling, how to hire the right people, monitor the money, pay the bills. I’m proud that I’ve hired good people and made such a name for the school. That’s most important — getting good people to work for you.
EARLY TO BED I’m asleep by 8:30. I have to be ready to go at 5 a.m. for another full day of lessons.
Article by:
Sarah Bahr
