Licensed to ..... DRIVE!!!!

Back home in India getting a license is one of the easiest things possible. You just register in a driving school and learn a little driving and then go for your road test with an assurance that you will get the license. The driving school will ensure that you get the license unless you really flop the test. Of course we can be a little adventurous and try to get the license on our own. Here in US getting a license is anything but easy.

I had heard a lot of stories about how tough it was to get a license. I always took it with a pinch of salt. After all how tough could it be to drive the car? But once I landed here and ventured out to the RMV I started believing the legend. My adventures with the RMV spans over 4 chapters. So here goes.

Chapter 1

First step is the written test to get the permit. Before I could go for this written test I was asked to study or atleast read the driver's manual. Now this was something new to me. The book had so many pages and there were so many numbers. Phew... How was I ever going to read through the book and memorize all the fines and penalties mentioned there? I had a tough time trying to cram the wordlist for GRE. Now this?? Anyway with some perseverance I finished the book, obviously I didn't memorize any of the numbers. I just hoped none of it would appear in the test. We headed to the RMV and after standing in the long queues we got to know that we needed one more document. So much for all the learning. We headed back and decided to give it a shot some other day.

Chapter 2

This time we were more prepared. We took all possible documents we had and headed out to get the permit. Luckily they accepted the documents and allowed me to write the test. The hiccup was that I had forgotten whatever I had read hurriedly a few weeks ago. I just hoped that the test would be easy. Last time I was at the RMV I saw a few people who had failed the written test. With butterflies in my stomach I headed for the exam hall. The test seems to be a blur now. All I remember is I had to get atleast 15 or 20 questions right out of the 25 questions. With bated breath I answered each question as it appeared on the monitor. I finished it successfully in 10 minutes. When I stepped out my husband thought I had flunked it since I came out so fast. Fortunately I got my permit that day.

Chapter 3

I started preparing myself for the road test. Driving was not a problem for me. I had to focus more on parking, especially parallel parking. Once I booked my road test we headed out and practiced the parking for 3 - 4 days. Everyone we knew had some words of wisdom to share. "Turn your head and look behind you before you change lanes." "Look at the mirrors every few seconds and make sure the official notices you look at the mirrors." "Drive slowly and carefully." "Don't drive below the speed limit.". My head was filled with all the advise and in all this time I forgot to look through the manual. Little did I know this small error on my part was going to cost me. We headed out to the RMV again on a Friday afternoon for the road test.

After filling the form we were asked to wait for an instructor. A grumpy looking man came out and asked me to get into the car. As soon as I stepped in he asked me to show the hand signs. I stared at him with pitiful eyes and tried to show whatever signs I could recollect from India. Who uses handsigns here? He had me stumped right there. He said the signs were wrong and that was the end of it. We were sent packing home :(

Chapter 4

I fumed for some time over this failed attempt. Nevertheless I booked another test the very next week. Since this centre was full I booked in Worcester. That place could be a nightmare for new drivers. The roads are bad and most of them rise very steeply. With bated breath I went to give this test. All I remember is following every instruction to the tee and driving extra carefully and successfully getting my licence. Hurrah!!!! Now I'm licensed to ... drive!!!

Tale of TOEFL & GRE

The must dos for any graduate school aspirant - writing TOEFL and GRE. While TOEFL was a piece of cake GRE appeared to be a tough nut to crack.

My preparation for TOEFL was similar to those of most test takers - NOTHING. To appear as a sincere aspirant I bought a study book for TOEFL and after leafing through it for 10 minutes I decided I was not going to learn anything so I slept through most of my study time. On the day of the exam I arrived promptly at the centre at the stipulated time in the evening. All of us waited eagerly for the start of the exam. Due to some server problem our exam got delayed just like most of the flights. To add to this I was the second last person to report. And they have this system of starting the exam in a first come first serve basis. So I had to sit idle till the other 11 people were comfortably seated in their chairs.

At last I was allowed to start my exam. I couldn't wait to finish my exam and return home. After all my wedding was just a week away and we had a lot of things to do. I guess this sounds as wierd - writing TOEFL a week before one's wedding. Well it's all courtesy of the college I studied in. Anyway that's another story to be told later. I managed to sit still in my seat long enough to complete all the sections. Best part was not getting to know the score as soon as the test is over. I for one was not extremely eager for the scores. But when the scores eventually did come I was surprised to have surpassed my expectations with flying colours.

Coming to GRE, now this turned out to be a totally different cup of tea. The wordlists loomed like huge mountains. Try as I might I was unable to learn the words and their meanings. Even though I am a voracious reader this type of learning was totally out of my legion. I tried all possible methods known to me to learn the words. All of them gave me the same result - successfully finish one word list and be horrified at not being to able to recollect the words the very next day. This went on for some time. Finally I decided to move to the other sections. They proved to be easier. Quantitative appeared to be my strength. I could never judge my position regarding the essays simply because I could never get myself to write one essay (till the day before the exam). As for antonyms and analogies they depended solely on the wordlist so the less said the better.

Everyday I looked at the Barrons with a frown. This appeared to be a monster that just could not be conquered. After long deliberation I just decided to try my luck with GRE. After all time was running out for admissions. So with a million butterflies in my stomach I scheduled the test and with even more butterflies I ended up an hour early in the test center. Fortunately this time I got to start my test early itself instead of waiting for the stipulated time. The essay sections seemed to be ok.

Next came the dreaded verbal section. Once the 30 minutes were over I was able to breathe a lot easier. Next quants. What I had considered to be my stronghold turned out to be a bit of a challenge that day. Too many geometry based questions stumped me. Finally with bated breath I awaited the next section. To my horror the next section turned out to be verbal as well. So I ended up with two Verbals. Anyway I cruised through this round of Verbal. After completing all the sections I awaited the tentative scores pretty nervously. I was in no mood to write it again. Hey what a surprise. I cleared the test with more marks than I expected. Yippee.. This calls for a celebration. So we headed to the nearest hotel for a delayed lunch :)

Reactions...

Ever since I landed in US I have been amazed by the diversity of the country. You can find people from all parts of the world here. By and large everyone is friendly. Whosoever we meet we are greeted with a warm smile, a friendly nod of the head, a wave or a pleasant "Hi". If you are approaching a door and someone is just passing through it then they hold it open and wait for you. These are all pleasant mannerisms which are quite alien to most of us back home.

Back home we would walk hurriedly past people without meeting anyone in the eye. If unfortunately our eyes did meet we mostly maintained a poker face. There was no system of waiting for people with doors open.. ("Well if they couldn't run to the doors why should we wait and waste time?" was our thought)

Whenever we go out (walking, shopping, to a movie, dining...) we get to see wide variety of people - Americans, Mexicans, Chinese, Indians,... List goes on. And these are the way people react:

• American meets American - The smile nod routine which may extend to a long chat.
• American meets Indian - Again the smile, nod routine.
• Indian meets Indian - This is a BIG NO NO. As soon as one guy or family spots another they either lower their heads or give the best frown or stare possible. Very rarely will the person smile at you.
  

I initially thought something must be wrong with the way I was dressed or maybe I was staring at them. But I realised nothing was wrong from my end. Soon I found from my friends that this was not my experience alone. All of them were given the cold shoulder. Upon more observation I found it to be true. Why is it that those who are capable of smiling at seeing people of a different nationality can extend their hand of friendship to them but not to people of same nationality? What was their fear? Or was it hatred? Did they dream of being the only Indian family in the entire USA?? Well I got news for them. U can't run away from fellow Indians :) The sooner they realise the more they will get to flex their happy smiley muscles. As for me I continue to smile at anyone I see. No necessity to change a good habit.

Baby Shower

Late Friday afternoon Rathnam forwarded an invitation for a baby shower (his colleague's). The function was on Sunday evening so we had two days time to hunt for a proper gift. Now this happened to be the first baby shower that we were to attend. Both of usa were clueless about what to buy.

A little apprehensive, we both made our way to the baby section for the first time. Wow we were overwhelmed by the number of items there. So many varieties of toys, strollers, baby kits, car seats, shades, tin clothes and shoes... Everything was so nice. If at first we were confused now we were totally lost. Everything appealed to us. After a long time of repeated rounds around the various aisles we made a choice and bought a cute set of toys.

Next on our itinerary was selecting a card. This didn't prove to be difficult. We found a wonderful card right away. Still wanting to have a few choices we went through a few other cards but none was as good as the first one. So we completed our first baby shower shopping successfully.

The baby shower was held on Sunday. They had done it so well. Not a single detail was missed. Their house was decorated beautifully and whatever is usually done in India was done here without a flaw. Kudos to the hosts for such careful planning. The best part of the evening was we got Tirupati laddoo. It was nice to receive the blessings of the Lord right here in Boston.