Korean Woman Spends 10 Million on Driving Tests.

Cha Sa-Soon, an elderly South Korean woman, has inadvertently reaffirmed age-old jokes about female drivers by closing on a world record for most failed driver’s tests. The 68 year old pensioner from the Wanju county has failed the theory section 775 times.

Cha first tried out for the written exam in April 2005 and has faired miserably ever since.

Her scores always fell into the 30-50% range where the pass rate required a 60% score.

Since her first attempt, she has been showing up almost every weekday for the same exam for the past few years.

Applicants are charged 6,000 won for every attempt and the Driver’s License Agency in Cha’s district, where she has been setting this fail record, figures that the the sum total of all unsuccessful attempts probably add up to 4,000,000 won ($3,000).

They also state that additional expenses like transport costs probably raise this figure to 10,000,000 won ($6,800).

Ironically, hefty transport costs may have been the reason why Cha has not enrolled in a driving school to help her through her exams. As it happens, most of the driving schools were located in urban settings, far from Cha’s hometown.

Thus, she has opted to rely on guidebooks for the past few years.

However, Cha is undeterred by her failure and believes that practice makes perfect.

“I believe you can achieve your goal if you persistently pursue it,” she says. “So don’t give up your dream, like me. Be strong and do your best.”

Her ultimate dream is to purchase a truck so as to build a business based on a door-to-door sales endeavor. The current mode of transport for her goods is a handcart.

If and when Cha succeeds, she will then venture into the practical aspect of getting a license  driving an actual vehicle!

Dalits can’t stop praising Rahul in Mayawati terrain

Shravasti (Uttar Pradesh), Oct 1 :  A week after his unexpected forays into Uttar Pradesh’s rural areas, Dalit villagers who saw Rahul Gandhi at their doorstep are still talking about the Congress icon.

Dalits, who were stunned to see Gandhi in their midst, can’t believe that the influential politician really came to their poor homes, talked and broke bread with them — even spending a night on a string cot under the open sky in the little village of Rampur-Deogan in Shravasti district, about 250 km from the state capital Lucknow.

And for one used to comforts, the 38-year-old son of Congress president Sonia Gandhi even bathed in the open, drawing water from a hand-operated water pump.

“It was incredible. We rarely get to see the face of the local MLA (legislator) whom we have elected. Therefore a visit by someone like Rahul Gandhi will always remain etched in our memories,” said Chedda Pasi, son of the Rampur-Deogan village head.

“And we are in a village where not everyone has two meals through the day,” Pasi pointed out.

The last time any VIP was in the village, which is yet to get electricity, was 12 years ago. That was Arif Mohammad Khan.

Pasi insisted that the impromptu visit would have been the best learning experience for Gandhi.

Gandhi’s journey, aimed at understanding the ways the poor live across India, was the most significant trip by the Congress MP to any place outside of Amethi and Rae Bareli — his and his mother’s constituencies.

“It is heartening to know that he is now stepping out of the confines of Amethi and Rae Bareli,” Radhey Lal, a former village head of Dawood Nagar, about 25 km from Lucknow, told IANS. “We hope he visits us too one day.”

But the Uttar Pradesh administration, headed by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief and Dalit leader Mayawati, is not impressed.

In contrast to Gandhi, many of even those who voted for the BSP feel that the chief minister has become virtually inaccessible to people at large.

The young Gandhi bypassed all security and protocol to walk quietly into the village in eastern Uttar Pradesh, prompting state authorities to accuse him of breaching VIP security rules and protocol.

Mayawati called the visit a “drama”. On an earlier occasion, she had alleged that Gandhi took a bath with a special soap after eating at the home of any Dalit.

But none of the criticism seems to have any impact on the villagers, overwhelmed by Gandhi’s gesture.

Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who was as clueless about Gandhi’s unannounced visit as the government, says he is not just India’s youth icon but an “icon of the downtrodden and the poor”.

“This has become Mayawati’s biggest worry,” she said. “The chief minister cannot imagine even in her wildest of dreams what Rahul Gandhi is actually doing to reach out to the common masses.”

Molester jumps off second floor, lands in hospital.

Chandigarh, Oct 1 :A 30-year-old man jumped from the second floor of a house to escape after molesting a woman but only landed in a hospital bed with paralysed legs, police said here Thursday.

According to police, Harpreet Singh, an engineer, had entered the woman’s home in Sector 56 late Tuesday night and allegedly attempted to molest her. She raised an alarm.

Singh ran and jumped from the second floor only to fall on a car.

“We immediately shifted him to the government hospital and the doctors there referred him to the PGIMER (Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research). He has suffered multiple injuries on his spinal cord and his legs have been paralysed,” said a police official.

“He was in an inebriated condition at the time of the incident,” added the official.

Singh told police that he knew the woman and had come there to discuss some matter with her, according to the official.

The complainant is the mother of a six-year-old boy.