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Driving around

24th of this month, a nondescript pale green envelope with my name written on it arrived home. It's contents were much awaited and anticipated by the writer; his drivers license. It is the first acknowledgment of the writer's legal step into the adulthood. Now armed with a puny little plastic card and a truck load of courage, he  decided to drive around a bit and try not to hit anything.

For my first drive, our driver uncle was sitting beside me, ready to pull the handbrakes if anything happened. Throughout the course of next few days I discovered my shortfalls were many; missing half pedal most of the time and rolling back, few judgmental errors, rather fuzzy idea about the size of the car and lack of awareness of road etiquette. I got scolded by a policeman and another driver who's front bumper was saved by driver uncle's timely intervention.

The perks were also many. The feeling you have when you are smoothly sailing along the road, behind the wheel is something: you're in another world where everything else slips into the background. There is just you, the car, the people in it and the road. There is something very inexplicably satisfying about knowing that this particular ton of aluminum,steel and plastic is going where you'll tell it to, in a sense its a part of you. I was also very fortunate (and happy) to see myself slowly improving. Hoorah ! to all the drivers in the world.

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