Car kaalan(m)

Aparna had posted about driving in various countries some time back. This prompted me (although a bit late!) to write about some aspects of driving in the US. Indian drivers: I am sorry, this does not apply to you!.

Most of the cars in the US have automatic transmission ("gearless"). Although I too drive a similar car, my concept of "driving" is when a car has a manual transmission (stick shift). You can only "move", not "drive" in an automatic transmission car. To this date, the best cars in the world have manual transmissions. On any given day, they are more fuel efficient and have faster pickup than automatic. Oh, and you can actually go to the 5th gear (and above!) in a manual transmission, whereas most of the automatic cars can only "go" upto the 4th.

Andha 4 gears use panni indha oorla drivers adikara koothu irukkey!!..

As far as we (drivers) are concerned, anybody who is driving below our speed is an idiot and those who drive above our speed is a crazy guy. And yes, each of us would say we are a safe and calm, and most importantly, a cool-headed driver!. In reality though, it is amazing how even the calmest person you know swears like a sailor when he/she is behind the wheel. But members of the jury, we have our reasons -

1. Consider this: It is a straight road, with 2 lanes on each direction. Traffic is not that bad and the road is relatively clear. You are driving at just the allowed speed limit behind another car. Ok?. For no reason at all, the driver in front of you breaks. There is no necessity at all -just checking if his brakes work or not!.

2. A similar scenario, and oh, this has to be my favorite one for popping a vein. You are going downhill/down a bridge, and as usual, are behind another car. And again, there is no one in front of him. Just because he is going downhill, he brakes. No, he has never heard of removing the foot from the accelerator, but prefers to brake. Seriously, I think it is high time someone builds a smart car which would deduct $10 from the driver's account everytime he brakes without reason. This is an absolute abuse of the automatic transmission system - like he is playing a video game.

3. I am not a sexist or anything, but I am very wary of a woman driving an SUV, talking in the cell phone at the same time. They may feel that they rule the road from atop the huge SUV, not me!. Thanks, but no thanks!.

4. Friday and Saturday night driving?. Go to the nearest temple next day for thanking God that you are still alive.

5. I am not sure about others, but there are few things as suspensful as driving behind a huge SUV or truck which has dark tinted glass. You have NO idea of what is happening in front.

6. Living in Florida has its pros and cons. The biggest con HAS to be sharing the road with senior citizens. Don't get me wrong, I respect old people and all, but please, please don't ever drive anywhere within 500 feet of an old driver in Florida.

The beauty of old drivers in Florida is that they are old, stinking rich (have a house up North and one winter home in Florida), and have ALL the time in the world. As a consequence of their wealth, they go for higher end cars - which is ok with me. Typically, the left most lane is for faster cars, the right most for slower ones and the middle one is for lane changing. If the speed limit is 55 mph, our friends would amble at an earth shattering speed of 25 mph on the left most lane, with their long-forgotten blinkers (indicators) on, just because they MAY turn left at some point of their journey.

And the clincher? - since they are rich, they would be driving the snazziest sports car you can find in the market!. Grrr!.

As Jerry Seinfeld mentioned in one of his epsidodes - "if you are 75 years old, do 75 mph, 90? do 90".

Have a safe weekend!.