Getting a driving license in the US: Is this Karma

I have had a driving license for the last 11 years. I had applied for it the day I turned 18 and was excited when I finally got it.

Now we guys in India know how the RTO works-- you go in with someone helping you fill out the forms. That someone also would know a lot of people in the RTO and then after some money exchanges hands the license would be made. A road test is never a part of the deal.

Now I went through a similar process in India. I never imagined that I would have to go through the driving test in a foreign land. But thats exactly what happened today.

The philosophy of karma states that one reaps for what one sows; no one can escape what is due to one. I got away with the driving test in the New Delhi RTO but had to attempt it in New Jersey.

The process of getting a license in the US is as complicated or as simple as your local MVC wants it to be. I have heard of cases where you simple exchange your Indian license for an American one over the counter. I have heard of cases where guys have failed road tests repeatedly. The whole problem is , unlike India, an MVC employee -- no matter what rank--is clearly empowered to decide who gets a license and who does not. So there is no standardization of process as such.

My quest for the license started one afternoon when I traveled 50 miles North to a blue collar town called Bayonne. I got this advice from a colleague of mine who said getting a license there would be easy. First mistake. Nothing in my life has been easy. I have always done things the hard way, my wife would testify to that. The officials at the Bayonne MVC first did not let me in because I could not prove who I was. Finally when I tried to talk my way into the MVC, they could not authenticate the validity of my Indian license. So much for an easy license.

So I trudged back 50 miles without a license. My second attempt was at the local MVC at Edison, Kilmer Road. This was a warm Saturday afternoon with a huge crowd outside the MVC. Somehow my wife managed to convince a gentle old white officer that we had an emergency. Now I had been so convinced that they wouldn't let me in , I had not studied for the test. All I remembered was bits and pieces that my wife told me when she was studying. So against all odds , here I was taking the written test for a driver's license in the esteemed state of New Jersey.

Some of the questions were hilarious. For eg: If you are too drunk to drive, what should you do? My choices were- Eat a lot of food and drink a lot of water, take a cold shower, have coffee or don't drive at all. Now I was not sure what was the right option, because technically they are all valid. So I chose to play safe and opted for "don't drive at all", which turned out to be correct. I scored a 40 on 50 and passed on the edge. So I had managed to hang in there.

I went back to the officer who asked me whether I had a license anywhere else in the world. He looked at my Indian license, felt he didn't have the authority to call it fake and decided I had to take the road test. So here I was, neither in or out-- stuck mid way. Now I had to do some thing I had successfully evaded 11 years ago.

I thought about my options-- postpone the test, give the test on my rented car or "invest" in some driving lessons. This is where my good friend Bobby helped me out-- by introducing me to another good man Khurram Khan. What Khurram did was arrange a refresher course in driving. It was like the 10 years collection of University exam questions we have in India-- It had all the expected questions. where to drive, how to drive, which road to take/avoid, what to speak to the inspecting officer etc etc...

The test was like magic and the same "expected questions" turned up. By the time I had to give the test I had been on that road 3 times with Khurram. I passed the test.

Moral of the story-- Karma catches up with you, no matter which corner of the world you run to. My advice dear friends-- face up to what you have to. Otherwise all your actions will come back to you when you least expect them to. and this is called Karma.