One Refurbished Car, Two Mad Souls, And 13 Indian States

Kerala couple Lakshmi Krishna and Harikrishnan J. are not like your standard issue married couple, playing it safe with their desk jobs, car and house EMIs. The adventurous duo decided instead to live a life exploring the country. They departed from the humdrum of their city lives and traverse thirteen states in their car. The blog about their stories on the road on YouTube channel TinPin Stories has over 80,000 subscribers, and counting.

They started in 2020. Initially, the plan was to wrap up the adventure in two months. However, spontaneity rendered their plans obsolete, and a hankering to extend their trip took centrestage. The two of them started contemplating the idea of taking an extensive road trip during the first lockdown. Once the rules and regulations were less strict, they assembled their ideas into a coherent plan and decided that it’d be best to travel in a car if they wanted to evade restrictions enforced by accommodation options in the pandemic. A new segment was launched under their channel which would document their road expedition. A few months in, and they were posting several videos every week—each chronicling experiences unique to the different places they were in.

Here's how they did it. During their travels, they would sleep (mostly) in the car. A makeshift home, it was equipped with a five-litre gas cylinder and twenty litres of water to meet their basic needs. They folded the backseat in order to assimilate a makeshift bed, and set up a headrest that would function as an extension to the same. In the night, they woulld park their car in a petrol pump, and access its amenities so they were in proximity to a washroom and not parked in an area cut off from civilisation. In the morning, they would freshen up in the petrol pump’s washroom before starting the day.

What about food and nurtition? Lakshmi and Harikrishnan say they would try and prepare their meals in the day. "It’s a little difficult to cook in the night since there’s no source of light. We would try to cook everything in the afternoon." However, they would eat out a lot too as they like to savour dishes indigenous to the places they are in. Lakshmi reminisces about the misal pav they had in Kolhapur, and Harikrishnan describes the naan khaliya distinct to Aurangabad. "You won’t find these anywhere else. Sometimes there’s quite a bit of oil on the surface, but the dishes are always amazing," says Harikrishnan.

And there are many stories garnered from local experiences. For instance, in Jaipur, they experienced Bagru printing (a block-printing technique birthed in village Bagru) and the traditional craft of blue pottery at Jaipur’s Shiv Kripa. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the grid-plan of the city is fractionated into a number of bazaars specialising in different products. here they explored Johari Bazaar which is centered around exquisite jewellery, and Tripolia Bazaar which dabbles in an elaborate variety of bangles.

The couple were always relishing the present moment instead of defining their future travel plans. "We didn’t have a fixed schedule as such. We didn’t think of how much area we’re supposed to cover, or how many kilometres we should travel in a day,” says Laxmi. "We really didn’t know where we’ll end up after two days."

And their encounters with people have been nothing short of heartwarming. In Karnataka’s Heroor, for instance, a father-daughter duo invited them onto their boat, and took them around the Hanging Bridge (which was shut at the time). In another incident (during their drive to Jaipur from Kumbhalgarh), the couple had stopped midway to click a few pictures when they stumbled upon a few girls who were working at the site of a check-dam. The girls, along with other villagers, interacted with Laxmi and Harikrishnan with unparalleled warmth, welcomed them to Rajasthan, and insisted on hosting them for a day. They were plied with good food, much-needed water, and great company. On a hike the following day, they dined with a few families in the area as well. And in Kutch, they stayed with a local family for a few days who extended to the couple their parking space and provided meals for a minimal fee. 

According to Harikrishnan, striking a balance between their YouTube channel and travelling is tricky. Editing, alone, consumes eight to ten hours, he says. But they wouldn’t have it any other way. "I would never outsource my work to an editor," he says. "I think the videos would lose their authenticity if that happened; an editor won’t have much context to work with. Since we’re experiencing everything, we’re able to translate our feelings into a video."