My first stint at driving..

For a change, I am going to narrate an experience.

I have to tell something about myself so that the reader could relate better to this. I have an exceptional sense of direction. I never return the same way I make my onward trip. I can easily get confused, because I simply don't register the directions or landmarks in my mind. Direction is a solvable problem in India. You can ask someone on the road or worst case, you get into an auto-rickshaw and reach where ever you set out to go.

Secondly, I have an extra-ordinary sense of "rightness". (oh, not about principles or accuracy). I always, invariably always, have to think which was my right and which was my left. To illustrate this a bit - my walk-in closet in our Phoenix apartment is adjacent to our bath and the light switches for both are adjacent to each other. When we moved in, when I operated the switches the first time, I somehow got into my head that, right switch operates the closet and the left operates the bath. Till this date, I always switch on the light to the closet when I actually want to switch on the lights in the bath and vice-versa. I am that confused when it comes to which is my right and which is my left. I got frustrated so much that, I had to unlearn this right-left concept and I have a better strategy now - the switch closer to the closet operates the closet lights. And now, I seem to be getting better at switching on lights.

And thirdly, while I am reasonably good at quantities (very important when it comes to cooking), I am pathetic when it comes to judging dimensions.

Now, when someone is blessed with these extra-ordinary "skills", it could prove to be a handicap when you are learning to drive. And I have never had a need to drive, till my destiny brought me to United States. Here, even for the essentials one had to go about in Cars. And man, they have high speed on the roads. Every time I see a car whiz past me, when I am on the pedestrian walk, I thank my stars that I have not flown anywhere because of that speed. But yes, one has to face realities, so I set about to learn driving with a good amount of prodding from my hubby.

Here, the driving school system works this way. You attend a 8 hour in-class session, in which they teach us about the signals, taking left and right turn using pre-recorded videos. You take a test, which one invariably clears, go to the motor vehicle division and get your learner's permit. Next you get to drive for 6 hours with an instructor - 2 sessions of 3 hours each. I got my permit and scheduled my driving sessions.

An instructor dropped by my home, walked me to the car marked "student driver". The car had two controls for acceleration and braking - one for him and another for me. He asked me to get into the driver's seat and asked me to get us on the road. (This could be very very scary if you have never been in a driver's seat even on a bi-cycle on main roads before and esp when you are in US.). I asked him which one is the brake and which one is the accelerator. He informed that to my left is brake and right is accelerator. Some how I made a right turn (or was it left?) and set out to drive. My instructor literally yelled at me asking me to maintain my lane. On top of that, he would say watch your speed ,watch the signals, make a right lane switch, accelerate or brake, and would quiz me on who was following me and what happened to the guy who was following me, watch my blind spot, dont accelerate that fast, accelerate gently, brake gently, go easy on the brakes, etc etc. Once at a red light, I had hit the brakes very hard since I was so scared that I might cross over the pedestrian line and stop. We both jerked forward. He got very annoyed and said, 'another time you do this, we are going straight home'. I was about to say that it was a very good idea but the signal turned green unfortunately and we had to go on. Now that is over whelming. I simply cannot, I emphasize, cannot multi-task that quickly. I can multi-task only when I am comfortable with atleast a couple of jobs. I was still not comfortable controlling the steering, or brakes or acceleration and I was supposed to look into a dozen other things as well! I wondered what he was doing sitting next to me. Why can't he look into those, when I try to gain control of the steering.

He took me to a parking lot and taught me to do parallel parking, perpendicular parking and all that. Parking after the first hour, when I haven't got control of the steering? I was bewildered. Needless to say, I did a pathetic job, since I couldn't judge the size of my car. I ran over the cones which were supposed to represent the car in the next parking lot. After one hour or so, when he said brake, I would invariably hit the accelerator. He hadn't noticed till then that I was controlling the brake with my left foot and accelerator with my right, while I am supposed to control both with the same foot. (my left one). So because of my sense of "rightness", I had been yelled at countless times.

Now, I respect his age, his 39+ years of experience in driving and I could understand his frustration. But he got respect my inexperience on the road too. Does he not? I still offered him a cup of coffee or juice when we returned to our apartment complex, when he claimed he was tired. I felt sorry that he had to work so hard at his age.

When I returned home that evening, I asked my hubby to postpone the second session, since I have to take the driving test that day. And that I am scared of the instructor and he keeps scolding me and all that. Driving for the three hours and I was at my wits end, I was just not ready to face the instructor. My husband simply refused saying it wouldn't make sense. And I and my husband go to a wal-mart parking lot to practice and I ran straight over the crib and over the bushes. (again i was accelerating when I should be braking) and that moment I kissed my hopes of getting a license very solid good-bye, but still made it to the class.

Second session was worse than the first. I had lost 2 nights of sleep because of fear and I was a little tired and immensenly scared of both the instructor and driving. When a couple of naughty drivers wanted to pull my leg by either coming too closely behind me or crossing lanes too closely in front of me, I got extremely nervous and ran over the curb and I refused to drive. We made it to a parking lot and the instructor said he would have to fail me if I am this nervous and it made him sad. I was frantically hoping (oh no, I was frantically praying) that he would fail me and I cant take this any further. But we took a break and let me be a passenger while he showed what I should do to clear the test. Somehow next time I made it, thought it was a very rough ride and I got back to the driving school's office. He got my paperwork done and cleared me through saying, "I wouldn't have given the nth chance, if you had not been so sweet and nice. I would not have given the certificate if anyone had been this rough, but I simply couldn't refuse you".

So end of it all, I got my driver's license to serve as my state id because I was being nice and not because I drove well. My friends say certain things happen only with me or only to me. May be this is one of those things. On a positive note, my husband was laughing his heart out, each time I describe how difficult it is to drive or I crib saying there are just too many things. (I don't agree that I am incapable of driving by the way. I cannot since I have a driver's license).