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Driving

 These days shopping for a car for our teenage son and remembered my days, twenty one years ago. 

I was new in this country, didn’t know anything about car shopping or buying , nobody to help; but a car was a must since no public transportation available in the little town of Thomasville GA.

 After six months of walking, hiring taxi cabs, rides from coworkers, it was about time to get one. All the other Indian friends said to buy either a Honda or a Toyota , they are good cars , economical, can last up to 200,000 miles etc. (trust me, I was clueless as to what that meant, no one from my family had ever owned a car ) 

Some of my friends who had arrived with me had bought used cars and were having trouble. 

So I decided to buy a new car. 

One of my friends drove me to the dealer one day, it happened to be a Honda dealer as it was near to the place of work .

He had two civics left on the lot for that year , another one of my friends and I bought the same exact cars from the same dealer at the same time, 16 miles on the odometer, what an experience that was , to drive my own car that I paid for …it was a mixed emotion , happy at the same time worried if I will be able to drive or not ( with only five hours behind the wheel before that).

But surprisingly, it was a lot easier than driving a stick shift/manual car on the streets of Mumbai, then Bombay. 

Family was excited to hear the news  (at this point there is no worry as they have never been here , not witnessed interstate driving or any other for that matter, it came a year later when my parents visited the USA and saw it first hand, same feelings, they were proud but worried)… 

How things have changed! Now, they have cars that almost drive themselves, help you stay in lane, multiple airbags, blind spot detectors, GPS navigation and what not, help available at the touch of a button…..it should lessen some of my worries putting the son behind the wheel ……..and oh, I drove my first car for 9 years, 120,000 miles (now very aware of what it meant), no trouble of any kind ever, had to trade it to buy a van when the twins came along and , guess what I traded it for?? A Honda Odyssey, guess I will just stick to the name that has kept me safe all these years. Ramblings of a  mom of a teenage son!!!




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