Passed driving test!

i passed my driving test..!!

Today morning i was really tense. I dont remember when i felt so tense before. May be it was when i had surgery. Mahesh who drives well had flunked twice. I chatted with Nithya and Madhura in the morning who wished me luck. I needed that.

Antonio picked me up at 9 and we went around the dmv testing route and also in town and freeway once. I made one or two mistakes during this trip, that too very basic ones. I could still feel the tension.

We got to the DMV, got the appointment, waited. I drank some water. Then the test started.
It was an old lady. She was friendly. I did the preliminary things like showing signals, defroster, wiper, emergency signal, brake lights, parking brake, headlight etc.

Then we started and she asked me to pull over to the curb. I pulled over, but was not close enough. She asked me to pull closer. I went too close "Not that close" she said, and i think i smelt fear. It was an incline. I felt that i had flunked the test.

Then we went on the driving around test. Did lane changes, turns, stops etc. I got some confidence. I could see her writing somethings. "Ticking is ok but writing is not good- it may be bad feedback" i thought in my mind.

We came back to the DMV, parked the car. She gave me some feedback on the braking (have to be smoother) and said atlast "You have definitely passed" I was very happy. She gave me the paperwork and we parted with "good day"s.

I was so happy i tried to give my instructor Antonio a treat, but he could not understand what i was trying to say (language has been a barrier all the time for us) Then i bought him a pack of M&Ms. I hope he likes it.

I was expecting that they will take a photo today, so i had gone with trimmed beard (bulgan) but alas they are going to use my photo of that first day- the one with the mexican/handlebar moustache. I hope people dont ask me "Hablas español?"