The Hitchhiker's Guide to Hindustan

Rajat Ubhaykar in conversation with Vikram Zutshi about his
quirky travelogue 'Truck de India' which traces his 10,000 mile
journey across India in trucks.





About the book:   "The share auto I squeeze into next
seems unusually vulnerable after a night in the truck - too
compact, too low down. Perhaps, these are the usual side effects
of prolonged riding with the king of the road, I think to myself.
But it is only when I fill in ‘truck’ as my mode of
transportation in the hotel ledger at Udaipur does the utter
ludicrousness of my endeavour truly hit home"  Think truck
drivers, and movie scenes of them drunkenly crushing inconvenient
people to their gravelly deaths come to mind. But what are their
lives on the road actually like?  In Truck De India!,
journalist Rajat Ubhaykar embarks on a 10,000 km-long, 100%
unplanned trip, hitchhiking with truckers all across India. On
the way, he makes unexpected friendships; listens to highway
ghost stories; discovers the near-fatal consequences of
overloading trucks; documents the fascinating tradition of truck
art in Punjab; travels alongside nomadic shepherds in Kashmir;
encounters endemic corruption repeatedly; survives NH39, the
insurgent-ridden highway through Nagaland and Manipur; and is
unfailingly greeted by the unconditional kindness of perfect
strangers.  Imbued with humour, empathy, and a keen sense of
history, Truck De India! is a travelogue like no other you've
read. It is the story of India, and Indians, on the road.