Our Isuzu

Motorcycle was our primary choice as a mode of travel. Motorcycles by default induce slowness - the pure discomfort of riding through inner roads force you to keep speed slow,  enjoy the journey, take frequent stops, interact with people. The inability to hoard stuff gives you a chance to ask profound questions of how much is enough and of actually letting go. It makes you vulnerable, dependent on the surrounding and makes you approachable to every class/caste/kind of populace. The most important of all is that if offers no barrier between the riders and the landscape, each waft of breeze, the smallest drop in temperature, the smallest bump on the road, every passing smell and sound is perceived and linked to the experience of the place. The memory of the journey, of a place then encompasses all of this.

However, with Arzaan a motorcycle was impractical and unsafe. The next choice was a jeep and we spent literally a year and a half trying and testing all affordable jeeps. Jeep got us hooked on to the idea of all wheel drive and trying off-roading. What a motor bike could achieve purely by its size and nimbleness was achieved at a different level by the 4x4s. We were not limited to follow the already driven paths. This opened up the world of pick-ups and tempos. At one point in our mental journey we designed an entire fold-out house on the tempo traveler. To cut it short, we settled on Isuzu D max pick up - a bit of luxurious choice and seemingly going against all our principles of non-hoarding and being accessible. But in the last year of driving it around we have seen the plus side of it. It fits in a lot many people and we end up giving rides to random people as well as on few occasions to cattle along the way, making many more friends and breaking barriers.

And so our journey begins in mid-April amongst the panic struck environment of Corona virus. An unplanned journey with undecided destinations and routes, hopefully lasting a lifetime. People seem to get extremely unsettled when we tell them that we have no idea where we would go and when we would be back. The idea of an unknown future is discomforting. The ultimate question that leaves us dumbstruck is Why? Why are you taking up this journey? Is there a message, is there an assignment, is it a world tour? Their discomfort is compounded when we say that there is no reason behind the journey. What about Arzaan's education - well the journey itself should be enough an education. What about your sustenance? We have enough to survive first few months and then we will wing it, that would be the real journey - of rediscovering the idea of sustenance, of earning. There are many questions that we want to ponder over - will write as we come across them.

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