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It has been a long time since I did anything worthwhile to write here. But today I did something which I think I will not forget for a few more months. I have rented out a car in Redmond and everything that has to go wrong went wrong today . After staying in Bellevue for a month now, I decided that it is high time for me to start driving here. Despite getting loads of warnings and requests from my parents to change my decision, I decided that I should drive.

Yesterday my roommate and I went around Bellevue searching for the Avis counter which Microsoft calls as its preferred rental service. We searched on Bing Maps and found that there were two Avis counters nearby. First we walked to the nearest one on the 112th Avenue and despite walking for a mile on that road we could not locate it. Then we cursed our bad luck and walked back to office and this time precisely noted down the location and discovered that it is present ‘inside’ a hotel :O (with no boards present outside). We had a good lunch and walked again a mile to reach that place. After walking to the counter the guy said, “Dudes we don’t have a compact to mid-sized car, we have a Ford Mustang. Do you want to rent that out?” We said, “No thanks” and started our journey to the second Avis Counter on the 102nd Avenue. After walking for another 2 to 3 miles we could not locate that office. Frustrated and tired we returned to our apartment and decided to call it a day.

Today morning we again called up Avis office and they said “No, we dont have any compact cars or mid-sized cars… Sorry!” As it always is, we Indian software dudes never give up. So, we called up another office on the 148th avenue and found that mid size and compact cars are available in the Seattle airpot . We called my roommate’s friend and the three of us traveled to the SEA-TAC airport. We booked a compact car and that started the trouble. Obviously I was the most experienced driver in that gang . The other two don’t have car driving experience in India, but I have around five and half years experience . Good or bad for me, I was in the driver’s seat and then my woes started.

I was used to driving a Manual in India and the car we booked here was an automatic. My left leg automatically started searching for the clutch, my right leg was itching to press the brake and my left hand was searching for a gear (all missing). Added to that this car’s brakes were highly responsive. A small press and the car would come to a screeching halt. So, confused with this entirely new breed of a car I was out on the freeway, driving freely without a knowledge of where to go.

To my bad luck, my roommate’s friend’s GPS on mobile was very slow to respond and getting some very random directions I steered the vehicle into some city in between (not seattle). After getting some honks from other cars and narrowly missing a sideways collision with a porsche I successfully got onto the freeway again. This time again, after getting some very confusing signals from the navigator I steered the vehicle into Seattle. By this time I was already driving for around 30 minutes and my Blood Pressure was at an all time high . I desperately wanted to stop the car somewhere but here on the *** American Roads you cannot stop your vehicle anywhere . In this sort of a confused state my instincts kicked in and while taking a left turn at a junction I steered my vehicle into the Left Lane. And after seeing a vehicle coming head on I instinctively tried moving more towards my left. That was when my friends started screaming. Realizing that I am in America and not in India I did a sudden shift of lanes into the right again. This time I narrowly missed crashing into another car . That guy honked and left. My friends started screaming that there was a cop car behind us. This added to my tension, but that guy did not follow us. Hope a ticket does not follow .

After this mindboggling stunt and after a couple of random turns I was on the freeway again. This time the road forked ahead of us and to the right it read ‘Seattle airport’ and to my left it read ‘Bellevue’. I was still around 1000 ft away from the fork and started flashing my left signal. There was a car in that lane and he was speeding towards my lane. I did not know what to do and thinking that he would give me the way I veered into that lane. To my astonishment that dude did an entirely unexpected turn on this road and missed hitting into my car by maybe 2 seconds. He sped away without honking and I still am unable to understand whether that was my mistake or whether it was his.

My roommate’s friend started insisting on going to Bellevue way (a noted street in Bellevue for restaurants)for lunch. I begged him to change his decision and drove that car to my apartment and parked it. This time no unexpected events happened except for a couple of people honking at me (because I was waiting at the right and left turns waiting and thinking about how I should move into that lane without getting ticketed). After this nerve wrecking experience I have decided never to drive a car in the US again.

I was a King on the Indian roads. I would honk at slow moving cars, speed, overtake and do what not on my home turf. But here I am like a fish put into an entirely new pond. Maybe after getting used to so much chaos on the Indian roads I dont think I can get accustomed to this extremely heavy rule based traffic of the  US. It might take me a while to get adjusted, but with such a crazy and horrific first day experience I dont want to drive here again.

Now I am tensed about the fact that I have deliver this car at the Seattle airport again. How do I accomplish this task?

Pratap.

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