A Drive To Remember

A fascinating variety of roads, trucks, drivers and their gripping narratives from all walks of lives are encountered by Dhiyanesh Ravichandran on a 15-day, 2,736-kilometre circuit drive in a truck from Delhi to the Himalayas. In this epilogue piece on JK Tyre ‘Happiness Truck’ campaign by MOTORINDIA, supported by Lumax as lighting partner, he recounts the sheerness of diversity in terms of topographical expanse and trucking cultures, while coming to terms with the everyday struggles of truck drivers on roads and a self-realisation that they deserve much more respect for what they do

- Dhiyanesh Ravichandran

“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts. It even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.”

So said famed travel documentarian Anthony Bourdain, who nailed it down rightly in stating why every trip is life-defining. The time when we at MOTORINDIA sat down to contrive what would later take shape as the ‘Happiness Truck’ campaign, little did we know that we would accomplish much more than what we had intended, to the extent that all the surprises, revelations, wisdom and grasp of the reality we picked up on the way has bettered our perspectives on trucking.

In fact, the experiences gained will even shape how we write about trucks and truckers in the future. Well, the bucket list of the HT campaign included taking a truck to the formidable Himalayas, encouraged by the fact that hundreds of truckers get there every year, via quick detours to all major trucking towns on the way and then engage the stakeholders for happiness and awareness as well as help better their lives and the industry. We did deliver on all those fronts, but what we took back with us – professional learnings and personal experiences, together with a sense of satisfaction – seems way more praiseworthy and noble than what we left behind!