Maneuverability-as simple as the name goes!

After one month of driving lessons from my personal instructor, I was pretty confident to started getting on my own on the roads. Since Kichu himself had not taken his drivers license from the state of Ohio, he wanted me to enroll myself into a driving class. As expected, it is not just a can of pepsi, but everything including driving classes are expensive. This was how the deal was - 5 hours-200$- and each day 2.5 hours-which literally meant just 2 days of class and 100$ for each class. Well what do I say! With a heavy sigh of discomfort, I sat in the new car to start my classes. Since I am a quick learner ( Pandit as how my father addresses me ;) ), I got accustomed to the new car too- Chevrolet Malibu-but that was nothing close to our car :). In one day, I learnt how to do the road test. I still remember her words, " Are you getchin watcham tellin ya?"! Well, I did not know first! Now I know.

Second day she taught me how to do the maneuverability test, in which one had to take a 'Y', similar to the 'H' one takes in India. Most of the states in USA have the concept of parallel parking, Ohio was one among the few states that had the maneuverability test instead. Lucky was I!!!! After the second class, I was pretty sure I could take the test and hence got myself s-ke-ju-led ( scheduled) for the test on April 1st. I love April 1st ;). I just had one confusion running on the back of my mind- I knew I would be taking our BMW for the test. Malibu was a really small car and hence I could manage the Y. But our car was really long and I knew I would definitely flunk if I took our car for the test. To clear off the doubts in my mind, we headed off to my instructor's place to collect the cones for the practice. I did practice for about 30 minutes, but it did not come out the way I wanted it to. Anyways, thought of taking a toss, and trying my luck the next day.

On April 1st, we drove to the test center, and waited for the inspector to call my name. When she called my name- I did not know she had called my name, I only understood the Mohaaaan part of my name-which I knew for sure nobody else there had it, my heart started beating faster and faster, and like every normal person, my stomach started grumbling and making weird noises. The Inspector asked me to do the Y test first. In my first attempt, she had asked me to take the left and come back, I did go to the left, way back as expected I hit the cone. She gave me another chance and I hit it again! I was all broken, I did not want to do it again. Legally, I had one more chance. Tried the last one in vain! Well, that was expected. The car was too long that I had not been able to manipulate its length and width. She asked me to do the road test, I did it well. She had asked me to make a right turn first, then right turn again and finally a right turn again. In the last turn, I put on my left indicator, and realised I was wrong and switched back to Right. Finally we reached a signal and she asked me to take a left there. Now that was the toughest part, rather the most confusing one. Since USA has left hand driving, turning to the Right is easier. While taking left, if there is no left turn signal, then we had to take yield and wait till the other signal went either yellow or till there were no other cars coming this way. I had not learnt that so well. But luckily, I maintained it and took the left turn well. We reached the test center back, she gave me my score card and asked me to reschedule for the Maneuverability after a gap of 14 days. I gave Kichu a call and took a quick look at my marks. I had no marks in the maneuvarability, while I had lost only 5 marks in the road test. Guess why? Oh yes right- for the wrong indicator!

We did not wait for long to reschedule. We got a slot on April 15th, exactly 14 days after April 1. And this time, I had decided to take a really small car for the test. Definitely a rental car. In the meanwhile, I got a chance to drive in the states of Tennessee, Nevada, Arizona and of course-Ohio and Kentucky ( Cincinnati was on the border of Ohio and Kentucky). I had gained so much of confidence that I was sure I would pass the Maneuverability, but not so confident in taking our car. As decided, days passed and April 15th had arrived. We took a rental car for the same day. This time I was going to take my test on a Chevrolet Aveo. I took a look at the entire car to get an idea of its length and width, got inside the car and learnt its features, and I was all set to drive to the test center. I have always tried to maintain my speed limits on the roads and obey the rules to the best I can. Atleast, I need to do it initially to get my drivers! :) Roads had heavy traffic and I did not dare to catch up with the rash traffic in front of me, despite being on the left lane, that was meant for fast drivers. I did not have a chance either to get to the right. I was honked and cursed by a fellow car driver behind me which made me feel real bad and lose all the courage I had gained for the test. I broke down and cried. Wonder why I had done that as I did not even know the guy! Finally we reached the test spot and waited for the Inspector to call my name.

Luckily this time, I was really called as L-e-k-sh-m-iii M-o-h-aaaa-n! Well like how I used to raise hands for attendance in school, I did it again all set to take the test. It was nice that I had to take only the maneuverability. With the Aveo steering in my hands,the inspector to my right, and Kichu watching me from a distant area, I felt good and confident. In hardly 40 seconds, I was done with my test! And yeeehaawwww, I have my first foreign drivers. I have an ID card in the country. Another reason that made me feel more happy was that, my sister had sent me a message, Wishing me a very happy birthday. That is when we realised that it was already April 16th in India, yes my day! What more do I need to feel better. We waited in line to take my picture and this time I smiled better. We had to run up and down a couple of times due to some missing documents. Finally got everything settled at a nearby center, and here I have it finally- my Drivers!

Since Kichu had night shift then, I thought I would begin my day watching TV. Well, as usual I was wrong. He came home at 12, bought me a cake, a bouquet of fragrant red roses, and 2 pairs of dresses. We then went for a movie- I Love You, Man; played tennis and Wii. What else did I need to make my day memorable! One of the best birthdays in a really long time!