Unknown
It all started off like this. “Why don’t you do some thing productive than Orkut and You tube when you have time?”, “How do you spend time at home?”, “Don’t you get bored of sitting at home?” These are some of the questions faced by a person who is on leave and sitting at home in US as dependent. All these questions resulted in my decision to take American driving license. Being a proud owner of an Indian driving license (taken 8 years ago!), I was more than ready to do this. I applied for an appointment and started reading the DMV book earnestly. I got a lot of previous year question papers and realized that they just repeat the same questions in a different order (Sounds like studying for University exam right?). I went to the DMV office like a student ready for exam and after finishing all the formalities took the test. As I suspected, all questions got repeated from previous papers. Still I managed to fail two or three questions, but came out happily with permission to drive along with a licensed driver. Of course the licensed driver being my hubby, I was more than happy.

On the next weekend we decided to start off the driving lessons. Having taken driving license in India after all those ‘H’ and clutch and gear changes this should be a small kid’s job (My stupid thoughts!!!). Brimming with full confidence we started off in a small parking place near to Carlsbad City Library. I was doing a reverse to take the vehicle out of the parking place and to move on to the road. As per the instructions, I put reverse gear and took the vehicle back and next second stepped on the accelerator to zoom ahead. Instead of going forward our car zoomed behind towards the Lexus, a devil in disguise!!(What else can you expect when you are on reverse gear??) . Thinking about our bank account, we called all the gods and our vehicle stopped just 3 inches away from Lexus. My husband had his first heart attack (he doesn’t have a hand brake to control me....totally helpless!!).

Hiding my embarrassment and still thinking of proving myself in front of him, I changed the gear took the leg off from brake and moved ahead. Our car started to move smoothly, except that it was moving at the pace of a snail! Still positive I raised the speed and moved forward. When we were about to reach a stop signal (I didn’t notice of course:)), he asked me to stop the car. In that moments excitement I pressed on accelerator with full force instead of the brake and our car zoomed ahead with pride at the stop signal.. (second heart attack!). My confidence level dropped considerably. Instead of proving myself I am giving him panic attacks. Still we decided to go ahead, and that’s when it happened. Someone frustrated with my pace, shouted from behind our car “Get out of my way you*#@$”. This time I had the heart attack. Everything went blank and I could feel the heat in my face and before any thing happened tears started rolling over my cheeks (yes, I am blessed with very good tear gland!). I decided to stop driving at that moment, but had to move ahead before I get showered with all the 'bad' words in US from the frustrated person behind our car. I somehow managed to do that, but stopped at the nearest possible place and moved into the comfortable passenger seat with a red embarrassed face. That put an end to my driving lessons.



My hubby's precious Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor...Still in one piece(after all my adventures!!).He takes so much pride in this vehicle and sometimes makes me wonder if he loves it more than me!!! After all these incidents and panic attacks, he still wants me to take license before going back to India. I am still thinking ……. (Should I or Should I not?)

(Here is the link for a hilarious clip on what not to do during your driving lessons:D (in malayalam)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggI__8_lw7c)


~Luv
Resh
9 Responses
  1. Girish Says:

    Good that you the pic of the car in one piece!

    Sree, all the best!



  2. wannabe Says:

    funny.. :)
    ennalum aa car ippozhum oru dent polum illathe irikkanathu kaanunnille nee? i recommend more practise!


  3. Manumaan Says:

    Reshma, ithu kondonnum thalararuthu...Ineem vandi odikku..


  4. Ninku Says:

    Hilarious :D
    But Resh dont stop the classes.ee adventures are a part of the learning. and may be the twist in ur story will be the one who swore might end up asking ur help in a rush hour.


  5. Anonymous Says:

    good one reshma! i am sure this will kill your time.. i can understand the frustration of the american who shouted :) hehe.. kidding.. thirichu malayaalathil naalu theri parayanamaayirunnu... :)any continue your driving lessons.. its not that tough, you just need to get used to the road.. all the best! keep blogging..


  6. Joise Says:

    before you learn driving i suggest you learn some teris and practice them.


  7. Unknown Says:

    resh.. driving license undayittu thanne njan enthum vendi therikal daily kelkkunnu.. avante okke english muzhuvanum enikku manasilaakathathu avante thanne bhaagyam.. :) Good writeup thou.. and my good luck to Sree (he needs it more..hee.. hee )


  8. Unknown Says:

    thnks girish...sree needs it badly;)

    sunu..thnks di

    yup i will do more pratice budding artist:)..thnku

    manu...ee vakkukal anu eniku inspiration...ini vittu kodukkunna prashnam illa

    yes da..nithya ...will do it:)..thnku

    njan ini saeevam ayi 'theri' researching cheyyan poa ...thnx to joise and Nikhil advice:)

    yes dani ...athu muzhuvan manassilavathathu avante ano ente ano bhagyam:)...thnku