I did it !

Yup, this weekend was a jam packed strings of 'I DID IT' events...

I was meeting a stranger ...or a fellow blogger whom I had know for few years. I don't know why but ever since I got into shooting people I realize I love to take Potraits! And I have this thing of wanting to take portraits of people... Om, Anjuli, Kashmira... as of these are the people I know I would like to take portraits ..of

Meeting and interacting with people online is not really my type! I rather communicate with people around me or be by myself - but I did it, and more often these days it seems to be a better way to meet people anyways!

Now comes the most important part of the week, Driving to Saltlake city International Airport to pick him up !!!

I cannot describe how scared, worried and tensed I was!!

A little back ground on my driving skills - I never drove in India or Indian traffic congested roads. I only drove in field or in the rural areas of North Bengal and Assam. My objective during most of the above drive used to be data collection hence driving at a speed not more than 12km /hr! When speeding up I would only have to worry about hen, goat, dog, cow or wild animals depending on where I am! As an enthusiastic wildlifer spotting a wild animal meant just stopping and watching the animal or taking photographs :) so I basically never had to deal with high speed! While driving at such slow speed however I have managed to breakdown a hut while reversing!

Needless to say driving in US or getting a kick by driving at 80miles per hour was never on my bucket list! So the combo of speed, traffic, big vehicles, trucks, SUV, multi-lanes, right hand drive in the US was a complete turn off for me !! Free community bus, my bike, and guy friends who enjoyed driving met all the locomotive requirement I had during my stay in US or Logan, UT!

As all the appointed drivers started to graduate I realized the necessity to take control of the wheels! This led me to finally taking the driving test and get the license after 2 years :)..So technically I became an eligible to driver three years back but I still did not feel the need, necessity or craving to drive, further catalysted by the shuttling between India and US !

And yes, I forgot to mention that I banged the renal car I took to give the driving test :) post the test :D. The first time I drove for a road trip was the camping trip to Zions, when none of my friends slept while I was driving!

To summarize, I basically had no confidence with driving and have never been on the high way on my own, never driven without hitting something, never drove all by myself as well.

And here I was to go and pick up Om all the way from SLC, and after a month I will be picking up mom and dad!

To just a little more detail, I finally did buy a car early this summer. Although I wanted to be careful but I went over a bumper at night, and scratched 'DISCO'S'' back!

So, I decided to use this opportunity and get over the fear of driving. Couple of times I had the thought of just going to the I-15 entrance and come back.. but time and gas price just made any such attempts impossible !

THE DAY:

have always been 'final stage me mareenge types' and have managed it quite well so far. So went with that.. Gave Disco a good meal and then headed to highway 89. All was going well, and I was quite happy. I was on the right lane all along as I did not want to speed up or rather wanted to drive slowly!.

But since I was at the right lane, sasura at the entrance to the I-15, it took me to I-15 north (towards Idaho) instead of Saltlake which is towards south. . and I was like F)(*_(_(_(#$$%%^!!!

I -15 North has no exists till almost 10 miles... I did not know what to do..thought U turn marroon.. but piche gadhi.. I was like F$%^#$!%@^$!%^@$!% F!@*&^!&*(@!& !!1

Took the first exit to the right but came back on I-15 north again!! by then I was already panicking! And my brain was not functioning, instead of driving straight at the stop sign I should have just taken a left turn !!!

I finally did that at the next exit, by then I was 15miles north from Logan and 100 miles away from Saltlake!! I was driving at 85 miles/hr in the absolute opposite direction, cursing my way to glory!!

As soon as I fixed the direction I was in heavy traffic and freaks were driving at 100miles per hr on the right lane!!!! No cops, so everybody was flying to glory !! I could hear my heart banging against the rib cage every time I had to change lanes at 100 and cross those big trailers or Budlight, or Coco Cola trucks!

Thankfully the flight was delayed so all the khich-pich got covered up !! But I made three rounds of the airport before actually parking the car, first time it took me to Economy parking, then Rental and finally the Garage!!

PHEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was all exhausted by then !!! PHEW!!! Sala mai to kabhi nahi drive karne walieee dubara!!

Wish this was true, :( I think I will keep a driver if am in US :) ..I don;t have to deal with all this tension... I am better off with a bike, or Bus no 11 !!

But inspite of all the apprehensions my drive back from SLC to Logan on Monday, all by myself was a piece of cake. I was as calm as a water kept in a bowl overnight. I was driving as if I was programmed. No banging, no wrong exists, no speeding, infact no truck overtaking as well!! I don't know how I did it, BUT yes, I DID IT !!

IT indeed was a WEEK of I DID IT's both in life and at driving....it's amazing how close and parallel can life and driving be! But it is!