It does not happen everyday. When truck driver Vikram Singh invites me to visit his home in Rajasthan en route to south, I jump at the idea. Huge, extended family. Wonder how many transport company executives have visited their own truck drivers' homes!

1. @@ Bhim, Rajasthan
With Vikram Singh Parivar

2. Most of my journeys begin at petrol pumps because that’s the venue where my
‘costly’ vehicles wait for me. This time, it’s no different. Mercurio Pallia Logistics, a
car carrier vehicle, awaited my arrival on the outskirts of Manesar, Haryana to take
me down south in 2011.

3. Vikram Singh (left) with his youngest brother Raju was at the wheels. Day ONE is
always tough as we both try to size up each other, since both are stranger to each
other.

4. Less than an hour after we left Manesar, Vikram Singh halted his vehicle to
introduce yet another brother, Soham Singh, who again is a truck driver working for
a two-wheeler carrier company.

5. Raju Singh was at the steering with his eldest brother, Vikram, watching from
behind. Raju is not on the rolls of the transport company employing Vikram. But the
eldest brother has taken his younger brother under his wings to ‘teach’ him truck
driving. This is how ‘truck driving’ is taught in India. No formal driver training
schools. Raju will become a full fledged driver in 2 years’ time.

6. Vikram Singh, though not at the wheels, is watchful of his younger brother Raju’s
driving on Indian Highways. All said and done, it is Vikram who is responsible for
safe delivery of vehicles this car carrier is ferrying. Not Raju.

7. As we pass through Bhim, 100 km from Ajmer in Rajasthan, Vikram suggests a short
halt. Bhim is his village and he wants to visit the family. This is nothing unusual in
Indian trucking scenario. Everyone is fully aware of such happenings.

8. Halt @ Bhim decided. But where to stop because you cannot park a 22 metre long
vehicle on the roadside in busy towns. Just outside Bhim village, a roadside tea stall
is identified for parking. The owner turns out to be from Vikram’s village. He will
take care of vehicle when he is away inside Bhim.

9. Village visit tempts me to revisit my own forgotten village connections. Finding a
well on the road to Bhim village, we decide to take ‘bath’. But for the long line of
villagers lining up to fetch water from this well for drinking purposes, we would
have prolonged our ‘bathing’ ritual!

10. Vikram’s nephew is getting engaged and that’s the reason, he would like to halt and
visit his village. Just not that alone. We also stay for one more night to attend
another wedding in the neighbouring village.. All the while, the delivery is delayed!

11. Sonam Singh, father of Vikram and four other sons, leads a blissful life on the
mountainside of Bhim. The entire family lives together with cattle. All sons are into
truck driving, influenced by Vikram’s uncle, who himself was a truck driver.
Strangely, the family is vegetarian, but all sons eat meat, fish & egg.

12. Each son has
his own
sleeping room.
Kitchen is
common.
Cattle sheds
are there. Lot
of space for
children to
play.

13. Daughter-inlaws cook by
rotation.
Vegetables are
grown in the
backyard and
goat milk is
accessed when
needed.

14. Sons visit home on their delivery routes. Halt vehicle on highways, come
home, spend a day or two and go away. Household items bought en route are
regularly brought home for collective consumption. And … they have no regrets.
Five sons, five truck drivers. Not too many?

15. Goodbye!