CHRISTINE MACHADO
If you spot a bright orange matador with three nutty travellers traversing the Goan streets, don’t forget to wave or pop in and say hello. The trio are more than happy to have your company and give you a chance to be part of their crazy adventure- travelling around India in a caravan.
“We have an open door policy and people can come over and join us for a couple of days if they like,” says Rohith Subramaniam, who is no stranger to such adventurous trips. In fact Subramanian previously passed through Goa as part of his 25 million meter ride through India about two years ago.
This time though he chose a different mode of transport. “ I was riding across Europe on a motorcycle for six months and encountered a lot of people who were into this whole caravan culture. I also discovered that a lot of friends in Australia were also talking about it. This got me thinking about why India doesn’t have a caravan culture,” says Rohith Subramaniam. Subramaniam also states that in India he didn’t really have a place of his own. “My parents live in Chennai but I didn’t have a place of my very own. So I decided to build one,” he says. “My concept of a home was something that moves and where there was no concept of locked doors.”
The first thing he did was to get in touch with his pal Ankita Kumar who was at that moment backpacking solo across South America. A huge fan of Enid Blyton’s book Five Go Off in a Caravan ( Famous Five series), for Kumar this was like a childhood dream come true, and she hopped onboard immediately.
Subramaniam then got in touch with William Meara from Ireland who has been travelling to remote parts of the world like Iraq and North Korea, in the hope that he would recommend someone for them. Meara decided to come onboard himself.
The first task was of course finding the perfect vehicle. “Indians usually associate a caravan with a Volkswagen bus and so we were looking for something similar. When we saw this matador which was inspired by the Volkswagen we decided this was it,” says Subramaniam. The trio picked up the vehicle through Droom from Coimbatore, christened it Kiro, and thus began their ‘Caravan Chronicles’.
Having set out on their journey on March 5 from Bangalore, the group has so far covered parts of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and now Goa. On April 16 they will be heading to off to Maharashtra and later to Gujarat, Rajasthan, Delhi and Uttarakhand.
“The initial plan was to wind up in Rajasthan but the trip has been going on pretty well so we decided to go up further North and beat the sun,” says Subramaniam.
And they have shaped their travelling time around the hot weather. “We begin pretty early, before dawn and halt at around 10 am. We then restart again in the evening,” says Subramaniam.
And they’ve been keeping things interesting along the way, meeting a lot of interesting people, hunting for authentic local food, teaming up with a chef to convert the van into a food truck for a day, inviting musicians for small gigs, visiting organic farms etc.
“We met a stand up comedian in Karnataka who can’t walk very well and also has speech difficulties. The sole breakwinner of the family, he has however made regional comedy his main gig and done 300 shows so far and thus defeated all odds,” recounts Subramaniam.
In Goa, the group has also been getting in touch with other people who are into the caravan culture. “We were looking to find others who also travel in carvans so as to get some tips because a lot can go wrong when travelling by caravan. For example during the rains, water seeps into the van,” explains Subramaniam.
And the group did infact manage to get in touch with a few people in Palolem and Agonda. And while they didn’t find any other caravans in other parts of India, the group did garner a lot of attention.
“People are curious and fascinated when they see a orange colour van and keep staring at us. In fact while I was resting in the afternoon one day, a guy just popped his head into the van and began checking it out. The first thing I saw when I woke up was this guy’s face right infront of me!” say Subramaniam chuckling.
And while he admits that he does at times miss his bike, Subramaniam is happy to have a place he can call home now and to be travelling around with friends who he can call family.
