April 1 2008

Heyyy, wondering if I made a mistake, or you may think it's a typo, but it's not.
Its about that date, my experience and my memory relating to it.

The story has its roots sown well past in India. The day my dad purchased a new car, (ahh!!! now you know where I am heading) dad asked me to join a driving school, learn well and then experiment on the brand new "baby".

With all the enthusiasm, I finalized on a driving school, got my learner's permit done, and I was all set to drive. (here's the catch, I THOUGHT I was ready).

Day 1. Boring Driving lecture.
Day 2. Was actual hands on experience, I was all excited, but to my deepest of the sorrows (pun intended) I could hardly pick the car in the first gear. In the total of 30 mins class, I must have driven just a mile long.
Day 3. A little better, I could pick up the car in the first gear after a couple of trials and errors, which contributed to my nervousness all the more.
Day 4. I dragged my-self
Day 5. I missed... so on and so forth........

Some-how I completed(?) the 30 day class in a span of 60 days. I also managed to get a permanent licence. (and who said, miracles don't happen, they do, just believe in them :) ).
Do I really need to tell you what happened to my driving after that?

=========== END OF PART 1=========================

PART 2 BEGINS

In the mean while I forgot about my driving abilities. I was about to get married and up came the question from my groom to be , quote " can you drive a car"

and with all the confidence I said YES.
I got married, came to US, enjoyed the new country, the roads, the speed and up creeped the enthusiasm for driving THE CAR.
As per my hubby's info, I knew how to drive so he gladly took up the job to teach me, and to his greatest of the fears, I did not know how to drive. :((((((

Well, still he took up the challenge, the car here too had a manual transmission !!!!!

with great love, hate, tears, frowns, etc.... I started driving in my community where the speed limit is 10 miles per hour. My level of expertise reached upto gear 2 as I used only gear 1 and gear 2.

It goes without saying that it took me 3-4 months to ride this "beast" smoothly (but in the community itself).
So now that I was confident enough, I asked my husband to take me out on the road, after days of pursuading him, he finally agreed.


Alas !!!

So here comes April 1 2008, during noon, we came out to practice, after a round or two and unexpectedly, he asked me to take the car on the road. I was excited but scared and was trying to keep my calm.
After a coouple of mins, I was on the road, up came the instruction from him, race the car faster and engage the third gear, which I had never done !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The speed limit outside was 35 miles per hour and here I was, not knowing how to do it. OK somehow I pressed the clutch and he put the car in third gear. It was a shocking surprise to me as well as to my husband.

He did not want to take any further chances so he asked me to take the car back in the community through another gate. YES ! you guessed it right! I did not know how to put back the car in either first or second gear!!!!!

BUT I did make a schumacher turn and the car came to a screeching halt. Oh yeah, did I mention, we were totally fit physically. Lets avoid talking about mental states.

As it is very very obvious, I was not allowed to touch the car any longer.

So this was my April 1, 2008, where my hubby surprised me by asking to drive on the regular road and I made a BIG FOOL of myself.

============ END OF PART 2=============

PART 3 BEGINS

After, that event, I hardly drove that car. While my learners permit was about to expire, my husband gifted me with a brand new fully automatic car. (that day also happens to be my birthday !!!).

oh no... this time your guess is wrong.
I am a very safe driver now.
Trust me. People who have had a ride with me can vouch for me.

Thin line between Success and Failure.

wow... can't believe I am posting after three to four months... December just seems to have passed... and I am already in Spring.

sigh sigh :( long gone are the holidays.....

Well, I really wanted this one to be the third in the line. Why? is a difficult question, even I have no answer to it, but had thought of writing this post as my third one.

Very recently I experienced there's a thin line between success and failure, just that little difference or a margin. I am taking some exams and I happen to clear the first one on the edge; managed to score just enough marks to clear it. I was a very happy person then , it was the first paper in the series of four and " I HAD CLEARED IT". The journey towards reaching my first mile stone wasn't easy 'et-al', but just like my past record (mind you I am very enthusiastic when it comes to studies ;)), I started being lethargic and did not study for a long time.

Then after a series of arguments with my better half I started studying again. aah !!! what a relief it was for him. The days of slogging and toiling day and night were back again. :(

After some hard work I took the exam, and was awaiting the results, and to my hardest of the lucks (?) [ I should have studied in time and put in more efforts] I did not clear the paper and that too, for just ONE MARK, yeah one mark. Suddenly, it occurred to me, there's a huge difference between success and failure, its just that finishing line, which you need to touch in order to qualify.

Now I realised what it is to loose a championship for a tenth of a second. That tenth of a second, that one mark, that touch down has to happen. Even if you are up close and near, you are not a winner, its not a success, you fall "this" short of success and that's the bitter taste of failure.
The feeling of "you could have.... , and but its lost now.... " is worst than swallowing a bitter pill.

Well, undoubtedly, I got a huge support from my friends, family and husband, which is why I re-appeared in a months' time and here I am successful with flying colors this time.

but damn.... it was bad to fail for a mark !!!!