Overcoming my driving-phobia

It took me an eon to start driving in the US. Most people come from India, check out the empty, vast roads, their eyes light up and they quickly purchase a car and zip along here, there and everywhere. Me, because I have issues, decided I would be the stick in the mud who uses public transport everywhere.
I can assure you, nobody I know has used Grey Hound and Amtrak as much as I have... and memorable experiences they were too! How much of a story can you tell with the statement "I drove my car to Buffalo, NY?" But when you take a Grey Hound, there's a whole world to describe right there. "The driver lost his way, we ended up in Cleveland! And it was 2am, and the guy next to me was traveling to meet his incarcerated girlfriend who had just given birth to their daughter in jail!"
Come on- can there even be a comparison to the experiences? Grey Hound rules!

Anyway, after being bitten by the car-bug in my last year in the US (only because I was getting tired of lugging around two kids by bus to soccer and parks and all the things that "good"moms do), finally bought a little 3rd-hand Toyota, which I had to sell within a year because of our move back to India.

In India though, I decided I would drive. Got my license much before RK (hah!) and in fact, was a pretty good driver. The secret to driving in India (or Bangalore, at least. I cannot claim to have driven elsewhere) is to tell yourself a little mantra before you begin driving: I will not hit another person or a vehicle. I will remain unfazed no matter what.
You will be fine if you remind yourself of this every time you start driving.

Soon after we bought a car, RK's work load increased in multiple different places and of course he, being a car hog, started using it pretty exclusively. Compared to the US, India is like public transport- haven. Plenty of buses and auto rickshaws; and even the metro. You can even rent bikes, cycles- anything you want. Not that one would EVER want to rent a cycle and ride it on an Indian road, but still, it's nice that options exist.

More than a year after RK started exclusively using the car, I suddenly had a fear: what if all the work I put in to learn how to drive in India had completely rusted away and I wouldn't be able to drive at all? Isn't driving an essential skill that everyone should know and use?

So one day, when RK had taken the metro, I pulled the car out of its parking spot by the curb and went for a drive. Indian cars are stick-shifts; plus, on many roads, it's impossible to drive beyond the 2nd gear because of the traffic. Add a steep uphill; multiple traffic lights; pedestrians, cows and dogs crossing wherever they want and it can be a bit scary. I did stall a couple of times, mostly because I had forgotten that when one is in the first gear, one has to let the car roll a bit before gunning the accelerator.
At the end of my hour of driving, I felt:
a) Exhausted. My thighs and foot joint (is it called talus?) were screaming in pain and I had to hobble out of the car, much like people unused to horse riding might have done a century ago.Stick shifts are hard when you are constantly shifting or holding a car in place waiting for the traffic to clear a few inches.
b) Mildly happy that I could still drive without completely panicking.
c) Slightly panicky about the amount of time I had wasted just driving around a couple of blocks near my home.

So, sum total of the experience: mostly negative.

I can drive, hurray.  But heck, why would I want to?