[Assam] Glocal Skills: Bears, Car Driving First Time -18 miles in Atlantic ocean : Makrana Marble to Viriginia Beach

Mon Aug 4 19:59:05 PDT 2008

Hi,

At the cost of sounding rustic and out of times with the jetsetting age I must admit I am pleased as punch after driving car for the first time. As they say how you do it is atleast as important as what you do. So its significance has attracted some interest among who have known me for some time. So I thought maybe some on AssamNet will find some comic relief in this narrative. Glocal= Global+Local

NOTE: Those just interested in quick read of the trip - scroll down to the dotted line --- and read from "The Route" onwards) 

The Man-1/Trainer:

My ex-roommate , an ABCD - America
 Brought-Up Confident Desi -
 has more car driving and
 lobe trotting experience than anyone else I know. In the brief period he became my roommate (for the 2nd time in 3 years)  since Dec 2007 , he has
 travelled  to  Swtizerland,
 Canada, Amsterdam, Mexico, and  again
 and  again to
 Canada and ofcourse across
 the USA - all by plane -
 he worked for United
 Airlines till they laid him off (and asked him to resign so that he cannot apply there again). Since then he has lived at Niagara Falls (10 minutes drive from there) for 3 weeks with 4 Indian girl students - went each moon-lit night to see the falls  with some  roommate.  Then  he felt cold  (it  is too close to Canada)  and decided  to  drive  all the way down  2,000 miles  to  meet  his old friends  and ex-roommates  in tropical Miami (close to Cuba and Mexico broder). He didn't even stop on the way - to meet his parents and us friends . 

Finally, he is back 4 days back to DC - for good ----perhaps. His last educational degree is from Fairfax High School, Virginia . I stay 500 yards from there.

The Man2/student

Thats me. I have never driven a car. Never sat in the driver's seat and drove even 2 yards. I have plenty of experience of driving
 motorbikes/bicycles/scooters on a variety of fast roads/lumpy highways/crowded city roads/off-roads/across streams etc. Driven and chased huge trucks. Even scratched myself all over -even eyebrow to ankles( in 2003) -while taking a tumble while thinking of something else except driving. Once drove over a piglet - it just squeeled and ran off (my father once told me that he say a huge 8 wheeler truck run over a grown pig - and the same thing happened - the pig squealed and ran-off) and once scruffed up a street dog (Ambika Shukla would be upset-oh oh) who was trying of chase me and bark me of the road (it was an accident that he came to close. Once I scratched my spanking new Machismo Enfield bike 

($1500 then, now $5,000 in the US export model http://www.royalenfield.com/app/IN/Products/Machismo.asp   ) 

to save a calf which scampered across the at top speed thru the road divider's bushes. The longest I have driven is for 22
 hours straight -6am to 3am in hot June month 1999 (temp 105-114F or 42-45C). We had slept
 for 2 hours under a bush by the national highway-partly in shade. Later raced with truck trains to get ahead despite their blinding top headlights-driving in both lanes - those coming our way and that going the other way - as is the Indian practice . Recently I have learned of two American Indian families which lost their lives trying to drive on their own on Indian highways (perhaps like the good ole days the then young man raced around on Indian roads)

Last year I got a driver learner permit here in Virginia after taking the computer test on traffic rules. I wasn't carrying it when I drove yesterday on US highways, my friend said that police have records on computer laptops in their police cars - you just tell them your name and they would look it up. 

 The Machine 1/The Matador - Bull Fighter:

That was the only 4 wheeler I had driven till  47 hours back. The 21 seater school van was a Rs 1lakh ($2500) brand new1988
 model (it still runs). It has a desiel (I cannot get the spelling) Mercedes engine - licensed to Bajaj Tempo India. I have driven it about 10  hours total (between year 2000-2002)- without any sort
 of license
 ofcourse - I have only got only one dirving license so
 far - for driving a geared two wheeler . Car owning is for upper middle class in India (in the US ofcourse an average American family has 2 cars - now moving towards 3.) Our family had none - for regular travel in city areas scooters are so convenient and mobikes much faster. TATA's Nano etc may change that soon! with the $2500 car (Rupees 1 lakh). The only time I drove it outside the naighborhood was while going with my father, it fully loaded with Valmiki (sweeper community) leaders,  to a an all night devotional gathering 100 miles (150kms) at the marble mining town of Makrana. The vehicle  broke at midnight and we were rescued by burly truck driver who called in the local village mechanic. We did make it to the devotional and on the morning I drove for about 50 miles (on two lane rural connecting roads and 4 lane Delhi-Mumbai national  highway no1 -at max  30mph (45kph)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pritheworld/1215167603/

Makrana Marble statues of Jain faith

The Machine 2/The Toyota Car:

This is my
 ex-roommate's new $900 sedan two-door car (1993 model)-grew old in Florida. He sold his $8,000 car 3 weeks back to get back to college to enroll and get his degree finally. After a $400 repair the vehicle he was able to drive it 1,200 miles (1,800 kms) just 4 days back -from Miami to Washington DC. There was a puncture and oil top-up.  Thankfully I never had a puncture on my highway trips (mobikes do not have stepnies/extra wheels and a front tire puncture could be fatal!! at 60mph(90kph)).  Since it cost only $1300 (incl repairs) and was still fit as a fiddle (never mind the torn seats). Its heater worked but not the AC. Its stick shift gears were just like the matador's.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Route:

We went from Fairfax Virginia (20 miles from White House) to Elizabeth City , North Carolina state 270 miles (450kms) away-were back within 24 hours. We
 spent about 5 hours - morning to 12:30 noon at Virginia Beach. Since I had just left workplace and was in coat and tie and the graphing calculator and leather shoes - I bought a Wranler jeans at Walmart - actually only after buying it I was sold on the idea of a wild ride. I had rejected the idea of going East (Atlantic City, New Jersey state), West (Charleston, West Virginia state), North (New York City) and decided to head South - where I had never been before. 

I bought a swimming trunks pair at the beach. Ofcourse, in Vancouver's Wreck Beach clothing was optional ( I stayed at the adjacent www.ubc.ca campus for entire Sep 2006). The semicircle ocean view reminded me of teh Dwarka beach where I learned a few tips from Italian marathon swimmers (10 miles ocean swimming) . From Dwarka's lonely, lovely beaches you could see almost 3/4 of the circular horizon as Arabian Sea.

Driving 18 miles thru the Atlantic ocean:

http://www.virginiabeach.com/attractions/2008/03/10/the-chesapeake-bay-bridge-tunnel/

Though I even drove 4 miles in tunnels to reach Virginia Beach city I dared not drive the 18 miles bridge tunnel combo which took us 18 miles into the ocean with Atlantic Ocean on both sides. Wonderful, worth the $17 we paid in toll tax.

The Swim:
http://www.vbfun.com/visitors/default.asp

I tried to understand wave motion from physics and about buoyancy  (I taught AP Physics today - regular mechanics) and was successful in bobbing up and down with the waves instead of crashing into them - after 2 hours of practice. Swam a bit but not the 200 yards each way I did at Vancouver Canada's Wreck beach.

As a child I remember my father quoting my grandfather that since I had a whirl in my hair - I had danger from water. Good I grew up in a desert but never to take chances I made use of the school swimming pool to learn swimming after
 10th grade - nearly made it to the school team - they were district champions - one of the few schools to have swimming pools.  We had an American priest Fr Hagee , as a Swim Team coach - hardly came for us beginner though. My father knew swimming from childhood at India's elite army school (all free education www.rimc.org ) .

An LA school friend and my Harvard sponsor has decided to train for triathlon which starts with .9 miles (1.2 kms)  of swimming in the open ocean, then 20 miles of cycling and 10kms of running. Ocean Swimming is risky as a New York Times Artcile said recently when a first timer couldn't swim any longer and drowned - it is not a swimming pool where you can hed for the side bar (as the Italian marathon swimmers had told me in Dwarka, India's  Western most  extremity  -as per a govt plaque there).

After Moby Dick and  Jaws movie  I used to be  afraid  of  sharks and
 whales - but gettin g tired beats it all.  Italians said that it is all about breathing skills (when to breathe in and when to spit out the water - if u need to) and to swim slowly , not to get tired.

I tried a little bit of that for 3 hours at Virginia beach. My friend sat/slept on the boardwalk bench watching couples play volleyball in the sand. Like a cowboy he hates walking and like a cat he hates water - drinks only bottled water. He had not slept properly for 2 days. Before that he had slept for 20 minutes in the car (at 5am) along the Dismal Swamp NC ( http://www.fws.gov/northeast/greatdismalswamp/ )  highway where signs warned driver to avoid Black Bears. Deadly looking place - quite dismal. He again slept for 1 hour near the place (yes, we went back to North Carolina in the afternoon - he had lost something personal there -figuratively) in hot afternoon under the sun in a gas (petrol) station.

I got no sleep so I did not
 drive on the way back.

MY FIRST CAR DRIVE - EVER

I was surprised when JT ( my friend's initials) encouraged me to drive - while we were at a Rest Area along InterState I-95. He found a way around my problem - that even though I was not carrying my learner's permit I could still drive and the police would not catch me - they could look up my name on their car computers. However, I was not very sure if it had not expired - I recall  it was till the  end of  my  visa period  (ending  Oct1st,  2008).

I drove at 40 mph initially and within 30 minutes was driving at 70mph just once - about 110kph - my fastest ever) More or less I drove between 50-60 mph all the way to North Carolina state. Since it was night time - traffic wasn;t a problem.. I learned this concept of looking at blind spots and how the Indian practice of suddenly changing lanes or turning the corner may attract the cops - who would
 assume that I was drunk !!! and would make me walk steadily, count to ten etc etc. I drove thru a 4 miles long tunnel under the bay/ocean also!!
Speed has never been my problem - mostly bumper to bumper traffic (or dogs, pigs, cows etc on the road) - so I didn't drive during daytime at all.

Itis a bad habit (potentially fatal one) when you are driving and totally sleepy ( surviving on caffiene espresso coffee shots) and looking up You Tube for songs on your cellphone/blackberry style AT&T phone - and cursing that Verizon was perhaps better -when the song stops midway - no internet connection. I was busy fighting sleep to make sure JT didn't veer off the road - God is Great!! We made it home.

Umesh Sharma

PS: HIGH SPEEDS LACKING? My high school friends in India were aghast when they asked if I drove at 300kph (200mph) on the highway (at 2am here it was Sunday afternoon there)  and I told them it was a mere 110kph (70mph - the legal speed limit was only 65mph).. With super charged imported cars now Indian car owners hog the highways  at speeds above 200kph (130mph) I am told. I have seen people go well above 100 mph (150kph) myself on India roads - but then u see atleast one fatal accident when you travel 200 miles - I saw none on my first car drive of 500 miles. - I mean first time I drove a car.

Washington D.C. 

1-202-215-4328 [Cell]

Ed.M. - International Education Policy

Harvard Graduate School of Education,

Harvard University,

Class of 2005

http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/index.html (Edu info)

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ (Management Info)

www.gse.harvard.edu/iep  (where the above 2 are used )

http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/

http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/

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