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Life in US without having a car is as good as not having life!

As such going to office has not been a big problem for me. Here we have got buses at regular intervals which go to down-town where my office is located. But, if I have to do anything more than that like shopping at Wal-Mart or anywhere else, or if I need to visit people around or if I have to visit other towns/places during weekends its extremely difficult without having a car. But the best thing about US is that here renting a car is quite easy and affordable. Its a big business here and there are lots and lots of car rental companies in US which makes renting a car a simple task.

The last weekend I decided that I have to rent a car and start driving in US soon. That’s the only way towards freedom here! Since my company is not too big I don’t really have many contacts at Charlotte. So, it was quite difficult for me to find people who would help me to rent car and drive it back home & then to teach me a bit of driving fundas of US. Somehow finally I got a friend free for sometime, hired a taxi and went to a car rental company and hired a Dodge Neon car. He helped me drive the car till my home & then he was out for his personal work. Then I got hold of another person with great difficulty and went for a 40 minute drive with him. Well, after that even he went out of my reach. Then it was just me and my car! My car was waiting for me in the parking lot and I was sitting in home wondering whom else to catch. But, it looked like the people on my small contact list of Charlotte were busy that day.

Then suddenly, out of the blue I got a phone call. It was my cousin Harsha from California. He told me that even he faced similar problems like me when he first came to US. He told me that I should take the car out myself & there is no better way of learning a car. In US it’s difficult to find people who can spend lot of time for us & if we keep waiting we may end up learning car very late by which time I would have lost lot of valuable time in US. But for him his wife was with him when he first came to US & she was always there in his car guiding him where to drive by reading maps. But, I am all alone here!

Finally I decided to take the risk and I went around myself in the car. I went to downtown twice. Since I go to downtown daily I didn’t get lost anywhere. The biggest challenge was to return my car next day morning. I had got my car from airport location & I was not very familiar with the route. I checked the route on Google earth. It was very helpful. But even then I took some wrong turns and get lost at many places! But, it was a real good learning experience.

Although I have got good driving experience in India, driving fundas in US is quite different. In US even a small mistake can result in a fatal accident! Unlike in India in US people drive totally on faith. They always assume that the drivers on the road are not going to violate rules/basic principles of driving. For example when I am driving on a main road I can easily assume that the drivers entering this road from the side roads will always give me the right to take my way first. There is absolutely no need for me slow down my car when I see another car entering the main road from the side. In fact if I slow down, the car behind me might actually crash into my car!

Another important thing here is that we have to always stick to a lane. We can always switch from one lane to another but this should be done with great care. One interesting thing here is that the right most lanes become a right only lane many times (and so is the case with left most lanes). In such a lane I have to compulsorily take a right (left) turn even if I don’t actually need a right turn! Since, I don’t know the routes well at Charlotte, most of the times I’ll be driving in the right most lane (as we are allowed to drive slower in this lane) and many times my lane becomes right only and I end-up taking unwanted right turns and I get lost!

One very important difference between driving in India and US is that here we can’t stop cars on the road. We need to enter some parking lot, or a lane meant for stopping (which exists only on very few big roads) or enter a gas station or petrol pump (this is my favorite spot whenever I get lost!). In India if we loose our way or not sure of our way we can always stop and look around and find our route. But, here if I stop my car, the car behind me will just crash into my car. So, even if I am confused about my route I need to keep driving till I get some way out of the road (generally a gas station). There I stop and then ask people for right directions!

Here all the gas stations are un-manned (but people will be there in shops inside the gas station). We need to swipe credit/debit card and then fill the gas/gasoline/petrol to our car. The card will get automatically charged. No signature/pin number is required, so actually I can even use somebody else’s card! Initially I got a bit confused at gas stations with filling gas. But, people here are very helpful.

But once we learn all the driving fundas, driving in US is actually a very simple thing. I have actually seen many old ladies driving car!

There are so many different car models in US. And I am getting chance to sit in many of them. In Charlotte there are lots and lots of Indians. Most of the days when I am waiting for bus at my bus stand some Indian will stop his car and give me a lift even though he’ll be seeing me for the first time. Yesterday I had a very big surprise when an Indian couple went ahead of me in their car and after noticing me, he took a U-turn & another U-turn and came next to me and picked me up to give me a drop!! It turned out that the husband Yogesh works for my company itself and his wife works for TCS. It has always been my dream to sit in a Honda-CRV and today morning an Indian gave me a drop to downtown in his Honda-CRV. Actually I realized that it was Honda-CRV only after I got out of the car!

I am planning for a long drive with my room-mate (he has good driving experience in US) this weekend. Hopefully, I can go for long drives alone after that. I am planning to hire car on all weekends. If I come to US for a longer stay, the first thing I am going to do here is buy a car!

I am having quite a lot of problem in finding people to go around with me. It looks like I have to travel alone if I want to visit places. There is an apartment complex nearby which has got lots of Indians. More than 100 people from Infosys reside in that place! I really hope to make some friends there (as many of these people travel in my bus cos’ it’s in the same route) & get some company to travel around on weekends.

This is the Dodge Neon car that I rented.

Road in downtown Charlotte.