2010 - Time is Flying Fast - Here is a blast from the past

Hello Everyone,

I know it is already one month into the year 2010..but still since this is my first posting of the year...Happy New Year :)

I was talking to my sister-in-law on the phone today about her driving/learning experiences on her new two wheeler and that reminded me of an article I had written a while ago (on one of my older blogs) about my own Saga of Driving :) So in "Blast from Past" moment, here is that article :) Please feel free to leave comments and your own experiences in the Saga of Driving.

*****************--------------------------------------*****************

Driving….. Now, I know most of you don’t think I would write an article about driving, that is because most of the times I write philosophical articles, but this time I thought I will write about driving and my experience with it.

Fact is that I was always a little bit scared of riding or driving because of a small accident I had when I was a small kid, but needs cannot be ignored. I was in my second year of engineering and had to manage my college classes, extra credit classes, tuition, and my social life. That is when I felt the need to learn riding as all of these could not be managed via public transport. So, in the traditional way, I first learned riding a bicycle along with my friend, who just like me shared the predicament of learning riding at the age of 20, and guess where we started, on my friends terrace !! Well I say this because; my brother who was 9 years younger to me had already riding the bicycle and was ready to try higher. So, started the saga of my riding & driving, of course latter I rode all kinds of two wheelers and it was fun. On a side note, I owned a ‘HERO PUCH’ and for people not familiar with it, it is a run down version of a motor cycle.

In the course of my life, I ended up working in New York City. Now the traffic there is just…… well what can I say, it is just NY traffic. There were of course the subways and since I did not know how long I would work at New York, I did not bother about driving. I could just hop in a train and go anywhere I want. And as life goes on, I met Rajesh, fell in love with him, got married and moved to Grand Prairie, Texas. Well for those of you who are wondering where Grand Prairie is, it is a nice small suburb midway between Dallas and Fort Worth. (I have to say nice, because Rajesh is right here and giving me that evil look).

The first thing I noticed here, was that there was no public transport and the nearest grocery store to us is 5 miles away. That meant, I had to drive! So, with Rajesh as my teacher, I started to learn driving with Good Ole Betsy. Oh! She is our Ford Taurus car. It was different than riding my two wheeler.

For starters, the car was so big, that I could not see all the four corners, so I was not very sure where I was going, whether I would scrape the wall or hit the curb. Then there was the gas pedal, I just wouldn’t go beyond 35mph., and as a result, I used to have a convoy of frustrated drivers behind me. Anyway I got over all that and was driving pretty well, I even attempted the highways and succeeded in driving on them. So, finally we decided that I was ready to take the drivers license test, except there was just one obstacle and that was my parallel parking. Somehow, I never liked it, I failed to understand the need of it, as we live in this big big state of Texas, where land is plenty and believe me there are no shortages of parking spaces, except in downtown and in front of my favorite Indian Restaurant, but I had already determined that it would be easier to make Rajesh work on his walk, than me practice this dreaded parallel parking. Well I wasn't the only one who felt that way, I guess God was on my side too, when Rajesh called the department of public safety in Grand Prairie, they told him that they would not test parallel parking for the summer.

So, off I went on the very first day of summer to take the test, if I passed it, fine else at least I will know what to do right, next time. To tell you the truth, I was scared. But as soon as I started to drive with the examiner next to me, it was cool. And guess what, I passed the test Hip Hip Hooray!! He did tell me that I had to practice more in certain areas, but now I was authorized to drive on my own. I now have a state photo id, which I would dare not show any of my friends, as they would fail to recognize the face. As a special perk of the whole ordeal I can now write checks at the local supermarkets! Now, I am pretty confident and drive around quite a lot on my own. But if I look back to the days of learning to ride the bicycle, I feel I have come a long way. SIGH…