Me haz Omani Driving License!

The pain, the success, the yearning, the hard-work, and the sense of achievement of being granted an Omani driving license cannot be understood by my friends and family back in India. But the Asians who go through the process of getting the Omani driving License know what I am talking about. You will see people who have failed 7, 10, 15, even 25 times and still going. There are also those superstars who crack it in less than 3 times and they are respected and revered. Mothers want their kids to grow up like these rock stars!

Anyway, my friends here (in Oman) understand my emotions, the core of my achievement . They have congratulated me and have felt the happiness back again that they felt when they earned theirs.. something what a mother feels when she hears the tale of some other mother's brave delivery of her child without an epidural. 

To all those who come here in Oman with a glee on their face and the confidence that they used to drive like a boss in their own homeland, its a bit of a rude shock when a driving instructor yells at you in the first driving class, telling you , "it's not India where you can drive the way you want. We have rules here!" . I swear to God, I wanted to complain about him to my dad and secretly wished to see him admonished for being so rude. But then, they are the boss.

After failing the driving test 4 times with this very expensive ( charges 7 RO per class =  INR 1111 + driving test fail charges = INR  5559) and and very rude instructor, I was lucky to find  one pure gentleman as my driving instructor named Ali. He taught me driving, he taught me patience, he was always gentle and funny and he was very sincere, punctual and extremely helping. I passed my driving test under his training in my second attempt and that's a wonderful result.

For those of you who are reading this and are currently taking driving lessons, here is what I must tell you:

1. Please do not compromise on the quality of your driving instructor. If he is brash, inattentive, and unpunctual replace him.

2. Please visit your test area often. Learn every road, every speed limit, every no entry zones and roundabouts. You got to be very familiar with the area before your road test.

3. On the day of the test, wear good clothes, put some perfume/ cologne, be calm and confident and smile often. Greet the ROP judge well, talk a bit about weather or how excited you are to take the test and DO NOT FORGET to ask him to wear a seat belt. ( I failed one of my test for this reason alone!)

4. Listen carefully to all his instructions and drive calmly. Do not shy away from speeding when the speed limit allows you so. They look for confidence. They will try to ask trick questions, listen , think, be confident and answer.

5. Don't give up. You will eventually get your driving license.

This episode of getting a driving license has had an impact on my life. It taught me to accept failure and bounce again. It taught me to let go and just do your best every time. It humbled me down a few notch and now that I have got a driving license, it really has made me very happy .

Time to go Vrooom Vroooooooooom Vroooooooooooooooooooooom

M