He Survived a Horrific Car Crash – Jessica Kumar (Transcript – S5E9)

(sneak peek)

JESSICA: I be shaking, I were driving from
Chicago to Indiana, right around Christmas time. And all of a sudden, it’s
white out, like He slams on the brakes. We get sucked into the median and ,
this EMT, goes, get out of the car, get out of the car. We start getting out of
the car and this car it just coming right at us, and I see him get smashed
between the cars,

(intro music)

BHAVNEET: Welcome back to another episode of drive
with us podcast. I’m Bhavneet,

TARANJIT: and I’m Taranjit, and we’re super
excited to have you ride with us for another week as our drivers take us on an
adventurous drive around the world.

BHAVNEET: before we meet today’s driver, a little
quick car keeping, did you know that we record both video and audio for our. If
you’re interested in seeing our guests tell their crazy driving stories, check
out the drive with us podcast, YouTube channel,

TARANJIT: and now let’s meet today’s driver,
Jessica Kumar an American that lives in India. Jessica Kumar,, a Hindi speaking
American is an economic development advocate living in Bihar India with her
family. She hosts the invisible India podcast, which highlights cross cultural
relationships, language, learning, current events, and how to navigate the
complexities of Indian culture as an outsider. Here’s Jessica. 

(transition music) 

BHAVNEET: Welcome Jessica to drive with us
podcast. Thank you so much for joining us today.

JESSICA: Yeah. Hi, Bob. Neat. And , I’m really
glad that you guys invited me. I think it’s going to be fun. I’m talking about
my driving experiences as a American person, living in India.

TARANJIT: Yeah, we’re super

excited to hear
your perspective of both. Before we get into that, we want to know how would
you describe yourself as a driver and what is your relationship with.

JESSICA: I would describe myself as cautious, but
bold as a driver. I don’t take unnecessary risks. People always back in the day
when I was learning to drive, it was, oh, be a defensive driver. And I, I think
I kind of turned out that way. I’m not going to be aggressively cutting people
off but I’m always assuming that the other person behind the wheel is a total
idiot and that they.

R I’m always
assuming that like, people are drunk or people are on their phone or people are
just not paying attention. Even if they don’t. So I would, I just kind of, I
would say defensive and thinking about what the other person might do.

 And my relationship with driving, honestly, I
have lived enough places now in the world where I would, I would love to have
somebody drive me around, so I didn’t have to do it or take public transit. I
find that to be more efficient. In large cities but I’m not always living in a
large city. right now where I’m I in like the suburbs of Chicago and I drive
all day long and it’s, it’s kind of annoying. I would so much rather be back living
in the city where I can just hop on the train or hop on a bus or living in
India where you could just, you know, ha hitch an auto or. whatever at Ola Uber
it’s so affordable and just have someone else take you so I can like space out
and do something else.

TARANJIT: Yeah, I understand that we have about
three hour round trip from driving commutes right now. Well she works remote
now, but yeah, I can understand how driving for that long, especially to work.
You’re just like, okay, I’m over it. I’m over this.

JESSICA: Yeah, for sure. And just environmental

reasons.

TARANJIT: Yeah. Yeah, that’s true. So when did you
first move from America to India? How long has it.

JESSICA: Yeah. I first went in 2006, I was just
fresh out of college and ended up. Going to India for an internship, , lived
there for around four years. And I did not drive at that point in India. , I
was just doing public. I did ride a bicycle around the town where I was living,
, how to Duarte, which was like, especially 15 years ago, it was this tiny,
half a million people, which is like, obviously so small in India.

, But it’s like
the small, little gullies, like narrow streets, no train, definitely no
airport. There and I used to bicycle around, which was so awkward, but for
someone of my age and I was a professional and like women do not do that after,
you know, 13, 14 years old in that part of India.

So yeah, that’s
where I first lived

BHAVNEET: Has living in India made you more of a
defensive driver? Like what was that like driving culture shock of going from
America and then Indian driving.

JESSICA: I was honestly pretty scared when I
first started driving in India. That was in about, I think I started driving.

in 20 16 and for
me just, it becomes some, something about your brain changes. when you’re
thinking about, the navigational differences of how you need to figure out how
to get to point a to point B, thinking about the zigzagging and.

Listening for the
horn of like, okay, someone’s coming behind me. I’m not going to swerve just
getting used to knowing that there’s always somebody like right behind you. And
every time you move, you have to look. You can’t assume that, oh, I looked 30
seconds ago and there’s no one there, no, there is going to be someone there
that snuck in.

 So part of your awareness changes, and the way
that I drive here and the way I drive there was completely different.

BHAVNEET: Are you able to

 Switch is when you come back to the U S which
back, like, okay, now I supposed to drive like a normal person. And then when
you go to India, it’s like, okay, all rules are out the window.

JESSICA: Yeah, Well, it’s kind of funny because
there are these unspoken. Of driving in India, you’d be like, oh, there’s no
rule as

It’s like, well,
no, actually there are unspoken rules of what you do and what you don’t do. At
least where I’m at in Bihar, you honk, you have to Hawk or you’re going to kill
somebody if you don’t haul because you have to let them know I’m right beside
you, I’m coming around the corner. It’s really, really important.

To honk, , just to
alert people that, slow down or I’m coming, you’re like don’t, you know, smash
into each other coming around a tight corner. but yes, I, able to switch on and
off. Usually I don’t drive the first couple of days when I am, , traveling back
and forth between places I will just ride in the car.

, then I’m like
remembered the flow of things. , and it’s usually not, not an issue, but
highway yeah, I will wait. Maybe, usually I’ll wait. , a couple of days before
I venture onto the highway in the U S just because you can’t make a mistake, .

You can get in a
very serious. , if you’re driving, you know, 70, 80 miles an hour and make a
mistake. So in India it’s like, oh, I went to the wrong side of the, okay. No
big deal. I just backed up and cut someone off and then go, it’s fine.

TARANJIT: Yeah, you can’t do that here. It doesn’t
work

as well.

What was it like
driving on the opposite side of the road. And have you ever had a moment where
you’re just like, oh, no wrong side between the two countries when you’re going
back and

JESSICA: Yeah. You know, I’ve never had that
where I accidentally turned on the wrong side. I’ve had the moments where I was
like, oh wait, Sitting at a stop sign usually. Or I’m turning if it’s like a
confusing intersection and I’ve just come from India. Or if I’ve just come from
the U S and I’m like, what?

Wait, wait, which
way am I going? If there are other cars in front, obviously that’s fine. I can
just follow them. But , I’ve noticed my husband when he he’s talking to someone
from back home and he’s driving here, I’ve noticed his driving habits become, ,
more Indian.

I’ve noticed him
do this where he will, like, he’s almost turned on the wrong side, or he’s
almost like. Yeah, he just, he’s just the way he turns is really weird. Like he
turns super slowly. It’s like, don’t do that. Like you just hear you stop and
you swiftly go , when it’s your turn, you go, , you don’t do this in between
type of thing.

You just.

BHAVNEET: So speaking of that crazy experience,
let’s dive into your top three craziest driving experiences. So what would you
say is one of your craziest experience?

JESSICA: My kids know this story, so I feel
comfortable sharing it on the internet when I was a teenager. I had gotten into
a fight with a friend I must’ve been fresh, like 16 years old and I got off of
work. I worked at, Applebee’s got off of work and I was driving to another
friend’s house

And I, didn’t
really know the road that well, it was a country road and it was very dark. So
I. Around this corner and there are not really well labeled signs. This is a
really small town. And I was so frustrated. I had my music blaring. And here
I’m tearing around the corner and I didn’t realize there was like a very sharp
turn. I’m like frustrated. I’m kind of. Fuming and driving and all of a sudden
I see this sharp turn and I’m probably going 70 and it’s like 20 it’s adjusted
speed of 20. I slam on my brakes, but my car just goes flying and , I went into
this, , I wouldn’t call it a ravine, but it was like this very steep, Ditch and
it dropped out quite a way.

So my car, didn’t
flip somehow, but went down way down into this and just, totally stopped. This
was before we had cell phones and I was just shocked. I couldn’t believe I was
fine. I mean, I did slam around a little when I. But I couldn’t believe that.

 Eventually some other people that were on this
country road saw my car and, some of them went back. got help. And like push my
car.

It was like 20
people pushed my car

at

BHAVNEET: oh, wow. At least there was a bunch of
people that are like here. I’ll help get you out of this ditch.

JESSICA: Yes.

TARANJIT: What was your parents’ reaction to

JESSICA: I never told them.

TARANJIT: Oh,

JESSICA: I literally never told them because , I was
paying my own car bills and stuff, so I was like, well, they don’t need to
know. And my car was definitely messed up after that, my axle and all that was
all messed up. but I was just like, oh, well I think I was afraid that?

they were going to
think I was drinking and I totally wasn’t, but I was afraid they were.

Take my car away.
And I was like, Oh,

that ain’t going
to happen. So they just don’t need to know. So I cleaned the mud off of it. I
went to my friend’s house. We like dealt with it now if they listen to this,
they’ll, they’ll hear about it.

BHAVNEET: Oh, wow.

I don’t understand
why like certain roads , you’re going like 50, 60, and then all of a sudden
they’re like, you should probably go 10 around this turn. It’s like, why, why
would you do that to me? You’re like asking for an accident

to happen.

JESSICA: Yeah. And I don’t think there was proper
warning really given either it was just like all of a sudden, maybe there was,
I just was too angry to like pay attention. I don’t know. That was the first
one, the second one. this one’s also in the U S and this one is a little
traumatic, but I’ll share it.

and then the third
one’s in India. What I be shaking, I were driving from Chicago to somewhere in
Indiana, I don’t remember. It was right around Christmas time. It wasn’t a snow
storm. Like it was me. An inch or two on the ground. It wasn’t that bad.

So we’re like, all
right, we can totally do this. It’s fine. So we’re driving along. I wasn’t
driving extra. I’ll be shake was driving, I’m in the passenger seat and we’re
going along. And all of a sudden, this is in the middle of the country. All of
a sudden it’s white out, like across your face.

It was a drift
that had like drifted across the farm fields. He wasn’t in that experience to
driving the snow. Obviously he grew up in India. So, he slams on the brakes.
Well, it turns out he doesn’t realize is he’s on top of the drift. we get
sucked into the median and we get, stuck in the median , a bunch of police were
already there because apparently this had happened several times already and
they were trying to get people out of there. this EMT, or whoever goes, get out
of the car, get out of the car. We start getting out of the car and then
someone starts screaming at us like, Hey, I look up there’s another car.

Flying towards our
car or the shake is standing right next to where this person is coming. This
car slides, slides it just coming right at us, smashes into the car. A B shape
is between the cars. And I see him get smashed between the cars, the front,
passenger door gets completely like, like bent backwards and he’s in between.

I thought he was ,
I thought his legs were amputated. I was freaking out. , , I don’t know how
this happened, but miraculously he’s like, I don’t think anything broke. We’re
in the midst of this scene, there’s a car smashing into us.

 More cars are probably coming. Let’s get out
right now. The EMT, the guy that was staying there was like shocked. He thought
we were dead. so we just like grab our purse and get out of there. He’s like
get out of here now. So we run into the, there’s an ambulance up at the top of
the hill and, I’ll be shaking, , walked over there or ran over. And our door
was peeled off the car. It was backwards. We go into the ambulance and they’re
like, checking him out. They check everything. And they’re like, I think you’re
fine. He’s like, I think I’m fine too. I don’t know how he was fine because I
saw him get smashed between the cars.

I do not know how
that happened. ,

We got the
ambulance, took us to a hotel, obviously we weren’t driving anymore. That was
super dangerous. Apparently this has happened all over the road. They had so
many accidents that day. And all the hotels in that area had filled up because
there were people that were like stranded.

So we stay in
this, , hotel and it’s owned by some lovely, Patel person. Of course. And so we
go and we like ask them, is there any rooms? And they say, there is, there are
no rooms. , are you sure? Like Anything, we have one room, but the wa hot water
doesn’t work. We’re like, we are so desperate. Like , we don’t have a car.

we just need to
stay the night somewhere. We just got smashed between a car, like just don’t.
so they’ve let us stay in this room with no hotline. And we just like dealt
with it. I was just happy to be alive. Our car was totally gone, totally gone.
We went to the dump a day later to go get our stuff. The trunk was smashed the
whole side. I have pictures of it. It was so bad. We survived that and now
until this day, I’m still nervous to drive in the Snow

BHAVNEET: yeah. Snow is so much scarier than you
would think to drive in. , I can’t even imagine like, miraculously something
like somehow he did not get her, which is great. So glad that you were both
okay. Your car you can get a new one. No worries about that.

TARANJIT: Yeah. You can’t replace a human’s life.

BHAVNEET: Yeah, we never, we don’t get anything as
crazy like that here in Maryland, but I’m always so scared of driving this. No
one is like, even just an inch or two.

TARANJIT: We’ve gotten like a snow squall one
time, which is like completely was white out. You couldn’t see even right in
front of your car. And I was like, oh my gosh, I’m going to get hit.

, that’s a moment.
I felt like, no, one’s going to see me. I can’t even see the other people in
the road. The road’s turning it wasn’t even going straight. And I’m like, am I
going to drive off the road? It was scary. So I can, imagine how scary that
must’ve been for you

guys.

JESSICA: Yeah, it was super scary. . It’s still
scary when I think about it and it was like 12 years ago. The third experience,
is a little more funny , this was just a couple of months ago, I was in India ,
so, you know, they have these, these guys that are riding around and on their
Kayla’s or their rickshaws, , cycle rickshaws.

And these dudes
are riding in like the main road and have their iron rock. It’s like over their
shoulder and like hanging off the back of their thing. This, this guy probably
had 25 feet iron rods. He’s in his bicycle rickshaw and he’s got him balanced
over his shoulder and off the back.

It’s dark, I saw
him. He has nothing tied to the he’s, nothing like tied to the thing. There’s
just a rod sticking out. I didn’t see the rods. Let’s just say that. So I’m
right behind the guy.

And we’re at a
stop sign or somebody, this is like a main road , in Bihar.

So there’s tons of
cars is super crowded And I have my kids in the back and I pull up right behind
this guy and all of a sudden I see him like tip up like a teeter-totter his
entire Rick Shaw. Like, if you could see me, if those are watching the video,
he was like this.

And then his whole
front tire, like you like came up in the air. I am literally like Teeter
tottering on the back of the space. So he’s like holding onto his, his
handlebars and he’s like in the air and I’m like, oh no. , I start honking
because I need to back up, I back up, he comes back down and I just like drive
off.

This is not going
to be good for anyone I have to get outta here because you know, in India it’s
street justice, So if you have done something wrong, if you’ve done something
dumb, people are just going to get out and they’re going to scream at you and
they might beat you up. you never know what’s going to happen.

So I didn’t feel
like going that route. He seemed fine. his cycle rickshaw seemed fine. He just
got a little teeter-totter ride with.

 And I just drove off. My kids were like,
horrified, like mama, you hit that guy. I’m like, I didn’t hit the guy. I hit
the Rod’s my car is just probably scratched up. Like that’s just par for the
course in, a state with a hundred million people, the size of like, Indiana, so
you’re bound to hit people and you’re bound to get your car scratched, but that
was the funniest , experience.

BHAVNEET: Yeah, you’re just driving along then.
All of a sudden you’re like he’s flying in the air and it’s like, what was
going.

I would also just
be like, okay, you look fine. I’m going to leave it wasn’t me. You won’t know
it was me. We probably won’t ever see each other again. So you’re good.

JESSICA: Yeah, definitely won’t ever see him
again.

TARANJIT: So

speaking of other
drivers, how would you describe the drivers in India versus the drivers in the
U S like what differences and similarities have you.

JESSICA: American drivers can be very uptight.
It’s all about the rules. If you don’t follow the rules people get very
stressed out. And in India, people thrive on bending the rules. That’s India’s
greatest strength in my opinion. And it’s a good thing. It’s not like, oh,
people are so unruly and own lawful.

It’s like, okay,
well, if there are these dumb rules that don’t make sense. Let’s just do things
that make sense. . Now. It makes sense for you as an individual, but it doesn’t
make sense for like a whole society especially when it comes to traffic laws
and things like that.

This is such a
strange thing because overall us is so individualistic. In general, we don’t
think that much about how our actions affect other people in, relational ways
or emotional ways or things like that.

 Our driving is very much like that. , people ,
get very control, freak about driving in America and in India People care very
much about their social circle, their family, but when you’re driving out in
public, it’s kind of this anonymous experience because it’s so crowded.

You don’t know
who’s on the road. You’re never going to see any of these people. Even five
minutes from my house, I might see someone I know, but. Probably not because
it’s so crowded, there’s just so many people. So it’s this anonymous experience
and that can be very dangerous.

 you know that the rules are not going to be
enforced so you can literally do whatever you want and people do. You want to
block the road, just like, put your car here and put your flashers on. And
people are like, beep you know, So narrow and they’re cars that narrow.

So they’re like
taking that most of the roads. So people literally do whatever they want.

TARANJIT: Which country do you prefer to drive in?

JESSICA: Oh, definitely. America so much easier.
And. I also can just go a lot farther in my car. , I don’t actually love
driving here particularly I’d much rather fly or take a train, but that just
doesn’t exist, everywhere. And sometimes it’s just impractical.

so I definitely
prefer driving to America just because it makes me feel, a sense of
independence and I can go where I want to go when I was at like, you know,
quite young, I think I was maybe 18 years old.

I got an
internship in North Carolina. And I decided that I was going to drive down
there. I was going to throw up my car with my possessions and that’s where I
was going to live for the summer. It’s like insane. let’s see, young girl, And
you think about that in India, like you just, it’s not safe at all and you can
never make it that far without having it take four or five days to go that
distance.

TARANJIT: What

would you say is
your biggest driving pet peeve?

JESSICA: Oh boy. the one that I’m thinking of
immediately.

Is when people
block very narrow pathways. So people would just stop in the middle of the road
or , when there’s, two cars that are facing off in a narrow pathway. And then
you have to back up and the other person backs up and another one goes to go
forward.

 That gives me so much anxiety when you’re in
these little narrow roads. Oh my gosh. It’s so funny because, I’ll be shaken
up. We have a scooter and then we have a car in Bihar, and we’re always kind of
fighting over who is going to take the scooter because it’s just so much easier
to try it.

Well, I need a
scooter because I need to go to such and such office. Well, I needed the
scooter because I have to take the kids to , their gymnastics class. And it’s
like in this little tiny gunny, you can’t take the car. Well, I have it. It’s
like a half an hour for me to get there. It’ll take me like 40 minutes in the
car.

Jimmy, 30 minutes
by school. Well, I need to take the kids. So that’s more important. So we’re
always vying for the scooter.

BHAVNEET: They’re such the opposite of being in America
where you like people would be fighting over the car. Like, no, I want to take
the car. I want to take the car. But then India is like, no, no, you take the
car.

JESSICA: the necessary evil, and that’s the
thing. And in monsoon, 90% of people’s life stops. When it rains, you can go
anywhere. You can’t go. You’re going to have to wait through, , ankle deep or
knee, deep water, if it gets really flooded. And then you’re going to get
soaked if you’re coming on a motorcycle or, even, uh,

But for people here
rain, snow. It doesn’t matter. I got my car. I’m just, I just have to walk from
my house to my car.

Or some people
literally it’s in my it’s in my garage. I don’t have to walk anywhere. my
mother-in-law is a funny story. So when my mother-in-law first visited us in
America and my father was.

We had planned to
go visit my grandparents. They live way out in the country and it was raining
pretty heavily that day. My mother-in-law was stressed out all day long, all
day long, so stressed, so stressed out. She was like, looking out the window,
like, is it going to stop? Is it going to stop? I get home.

Like, why aren’t
you ready to go? We need to leave. We’re going out to this place. Like. Like
mummy up there

bag up in the
back. I was like, why didn’t you wear your, sorry, put your stuff together, get
your bag together. Let’s go. She’s like, well, I thought we weren’t going.
Cause it’s raining. I’m like, no, it doesn’t work that way. Heater. It doesn’t
matter if it’s raining, if you can see you drive, She just didn’t get that.

And so I was like
an hour late to go visit my grandparents because she wasn’t ready. I was just
so annoyed. I’m like, oh man. Some of these things that, you just take
advantage, you just you’d take for granted. When you grew up in America, you
like, there’s literally nothing that can stop me from going where I want to go.

BHAVNEET: Yeah, it must’ve been such a huge,
culture shock. I’d be like, wait, you can still go in rain.

Have you ever
experienced road rage? I know you talked about, there’s like street justice in
India, but like have you ever experienced road rage or a seen it

JESSICA: Oh Yeah, So many times. I will tell you
when I’ve experienced it myself. I was calling to pick up my son from school
and in the city where we live in Bihar it’s oh God. It’s just so badly
organized in the way that they’ve where they’ve all of these schools are right
in the same area. Now, when these schools started, there were like 200 students
Now each school has, , five to like 8,000 students and they’re all on the same
row and they all let out around the same time. So it is maddening when you go.
And I had left, I was going to pick up my son. , I was in the car, not in the
scooter because I lost the bet that day over lost the T the toss.

If he was going to
have the car, he was going to have the scooter. and there was just an ocean of
vehicles coming towards me. And I had been waiting for probably five minutes
trying to , get on the main road I had this kind of weird. I have a, , it’s an
automatic vehicle, but basically what they did was they took the manual
transmission.

Just kind of like
rigged it up a little bit so that it becomes automatic. So when you shift, it
actually takes two seconds to catch in. So that’s too long by the time two
seconds have come, someone is going to be in front of you cut right in front.
And there’s this guy I remember. I had, I was laying on my heart light as
hasn’t going forward, trying to get into the ocean.

And I was feeling
it, I was feeling angry because not a single person was moving. And then this
guy, I had just, started to accelerate and he cuts right in front of me. And ,
I’m like, I’m not even going to stop. So I just nailed the front of his
motorcycle. I mean, , I’m literally going from stop.

To going here, I’m
not going fast, but he’s in a motorcycle and I’m going hard. And so I was
honking really loudly. I am coming now. I tried so many times I’m laying on my
horn and I hit the, the gas to slowly accelerate forward. And he just came
right in front of me and just, boom. I just nailed him.

No, I felt bad.
Like he had a child on his motorcycle and he, they didn’t fall off or anything,
but his motorcycle went like this and he’s yelling at me. And I started screaming
back at him. It was this ugly.

My husband has a
lot of crazy stories because he’s a man and people will verbally assault him a
lot worse than they will me, because people are like, oh, you know, lady
driver, like, oh, what does she know?

And whatever, they
kind of have that mentality there. It’s like, oh, she must be a new driver. She
messed up. They’re not gonna read me out. But , if you’re an Indian male with.
Big mustache and beard, like he’s going to get yelled at. So he has, he has
some very crazy stories.

TARANJIT: well, luckily it didn’t escalate to
anything too serious or just a little bit of yelling and just on with your way.

So did you have to
take a driving test when you went to India or were you able to like transfer
your license?

JESSICA: , I got what’s called an international
license?

And if anyone is
listening to this, that is an American that wants to drive overseas. You can go
to triple a, you don’t even have to be a member of AAA and you can get an
international license for most countries. And it’s a wa it’s valid for one
year.

 Think it’s, it’s very cheap. It’s like 25
bucks or 20 bucks or something like that. And , it’s an official document that
you can show, and it says I’m licensed driver in the United States and it shows
all of the countries that the United States has. The relationship with, or
whatever, understanding that if you have an international license.

So I have never
been asked to show that license ever.

TARANJIT: Yeah, that must’ve made it a lot easier.
What was it like when you’re getting your license here in the U S was it easy
for you? Where are you able to pass in

the first time?

JESSICA: for me. I’m a very. At that time?

I’m not this way
anymore, but I was like a very achievement oriented person as a teen. And I was
just good at, I felt like I was good at everything and I wanted to be good at
everything. And so I went and did my driver’s test and I did not fully stop at
a red light when I was supposed to be turning.

Right. So it was
like yellow and I pause, but my tires. Didn’t fully stop. At the red light. I
kind of like pause, but like went through and then it turned red, but I had
kind of gone through and turned right on a red because that’s what you do. And
I failed, I failed the test. I was so devastated.

 I went back, I think the next day or two and,
passed. But man, I was so humiliated.

TARANJIT: At least you’re able to go so quickly
after I feel like now you have a longer wait between one fail and then the next
one, when you can go get your license, like go try again.

JESSICA: Yeah, I don’t remember. It might not
have been a day. Might’ve been a week. I’m not sure, but I also was living at
the time in a very rural area, so they didn’t really have that many things to
do I think. And So.

I could just get
in right away and get out.

TARANJIT: switching gears a little bit, we’ve been
talking about your driving so far let’s talk a little bit about the future of
driving. I thought on self-driving cars. And is this something that you would
be interested in getting

into.

JESSICA: I don’t really have a strong opinion
about that. think that if it’s done right, it could be, it could be great. I
think it could be really great. And I’m one of those people, that’s a bit of a
late adopter with certain things. I want to make sure it’s really going to work
well.

And I want to see
that things are safe and that things are tested well But I think I wouldn’t
mind going that route. Once it’s past , all the testing phase and more people
are using them. Sure. Why not?

BHAVNEET: Do you think that would be something
that would work. In India.

JESSICA: Definitely not. There’s just too much
complexity and too much nuance. And just too many factors at play that I don’t
think it would ever work

TARANJIT: and I agree with that. I don’t, I don’t
see, I can’t picture it happening there. I feel like it would have to be like a
whole restructuring of everything in order for even to have a little part of
it. Have

self-driving cars.

JESSICA: Yeah. And the car usage is only going
up. Up and up and up and up and up. the roads are going to be more and more
crowded and then upcoming decades.

BHAVNEET: Bonus question time. Are you.

JESSICA: Yes.

TARANJIT: If

BHAVNEET: you could make one, a new driving law,
what

would it be?

JESSICA: This is a silly thing, but I think it’s
not really a law, but it is, it is a idea. I would love to see one lane of the
highway in America, in any wherever, just like the airport, where they have a
conveyor belt that you can stand. You can choose to stand on there or you can
choose to drive. Like you just go and you park your car and it just takes you
along.

 I think that would be?

amazing. There
would be two lanes, which just like the normal driving. Do you want to drive?
Go ahead. And then there’s another lane. That’s park your car on this conveyor
belt and, , enter in where you’re going to get off or what exit you’re going to
get off.

And it’ll end and
it’ll be like those areas that let you off and then you drive again. but this
is just something on the major highways that I don’t know why we can’t do that.
Why can’t we do that? Make it solar powered, we got to think about gas usage.
We’ve got to think about, , getting off of fossil fuels and I think that’s a
good idea, and then it’s a way they don’t have to pay attention while I’m
driving.

 I think that’s a good idea, but no one asks
me. So thanks for asking.

TARANJIT: That’s a really cool idea. I never even
thought about that. would be really cool. You can just like, if you’re going on
like a long road trip and you’re like, I want to drive and they like, oh, I’m
really tired. I don’t feel like driving right now. Just hop on the conveyor
belt.

JESSICA: Exactly makes sense to me.

TARANJIT: I mean in a way, I guess self-driving
cars could get to that point where you can just punch in wherever you want to
go. And there’ll be like a conveyor belt, but not like

really.

JESSICA: right?

TARANJIT: Do you have any final thoughts or any
tips that you’d like to give other.

JESSICA: I would say that if anyone’s listening
to this and they are. Wanting to learn to drive in India. They haven’t learned
that. I think it definitely can be done. We need more good drivers out there.
And then once you learn to drive, then, you can have more empathy for people
who are. , but also the opposite advice would be if you’re like from India and
you’re wanting to drive in the U S I think that there can also be some fear,
but, you know, take a class, practice a lot on small roads and just do it
because it’s gonna, change your life and it’s gonna help your life.

And it’s gonna
open up your horizons a lot. So I think a lot of people that move straight away
from India or the especially women. They like don’t learn to drive for five,
10, maybe they never learned. And your life is super limited in the United
States.

If you don’t drive
and you don’t live in a major city. So everybody should at least know how to
drive in an emergency and you can

TARANJIT: Yeah, that’s a really good tip. Our
parents are also from. So when my mom came here, she didn’t drive for a while
either. So I can understand where it’s nice to be like, have someone who
encourages you, first of all, because you have that fear of like being in
another country and you don’t know what the rules are or any of that.

And so if someone’s
there to support you and encourage you to try it out, then I feel like you’ll
make it better. And then again, like you mentioned, having the ability to drive
in an emergency is always

benefit.

JESSICA: Absolutely.

BHAVNEET: thank you so much for coming on today.
It was really great talking to you before we let you go. Where can our
listeners find you if they want to connect?

JESSICA: Yeah. So I host the invisible India
podcast is about my life in India, but not just about me. I also interview
stereotype breaking. They sees people from south Asian background who are doing
cool things to benefit Indian society. and you can find me

 Everywhere podcasts can be found. My website
is invisible India, podcast.com and I also am starting a Hindi course. My,
focus is all about creating resources for Indian languages.

BHAVNEET: Awesome. Thank you so much for coming
on. Again, it was such a blast talking to you, being able to hear another
perspective of an American driving in India, and hopefully we’ll have those
conveyor belts on our highway soon.

JESSICA: Thank you so much. so nice to talk to
you. 

 (transition music)

TARANJIT: It’s always so interesting to hear about
driving cultures from around the world and how they compare to driving cultures
here of what we experienced and hearing the perspective of another person
sharing

in this case, it
was India’s driving experience and comparing in that to our previous guest last
season, Amandeep’s driving experience in India. It’s always interesting to hear
how different people experienced driving around the world.

BHAVNEET: But the one thing they had in common is
that, , Indian drivers are a little crazy, but lightly

TARANJIT: we can say that.

Right. Cause we’re
in India. It’s okay. Right. It’s okay.

BHAVNEET: Have you ever driven in India or can you
relate to Jessica’s driving

TARANJIT: stories? Can you drive in India?

BHAVNEET: That’s a better question. Yeah. Can you

Share your
experiences with us on Instagram, at drive with us podcast and let us know. I’m
curious, like if any of you can drive in India, brownie points.

And be sure to
stay tuned until the end of this episode, to hear a sneak peek of next week’s episode,
with Key a driver’s ed instructor and owner of the aspire driving academy.

TARANJIT: She shared with us some behind the
scenes of life as a driver’s ed instructor and some of her own personal stories
and stories of her student’s driving experiences.

BHAVNEET: If you enjoyed this podcast, you can
help support the show by sharing it with your friends or leaving us a review on
Podchaser. It truly does help us get discovered.

TARANJIT: Thank you for choosing to drive with us
and we’ll see you all next week.

(outro music)

 KEY: one of my students fell asleep while driving. And I noticed one time they went over to the side and I was like, you okay. And they didn’t answer me and the car literally slowed down and stopped and I looked over and he was asleep